


Hard To Be Myself

by fkanicks



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Angst and Humor, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2019-07-13 20:30:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 43,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16025438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fkanicks/pseuds/fkanicks
Summary: Kara Danvers and her special ops team receive a case from a concerned Sam Arias to protect her best friend, Lena Luthor, from her brother, Lex, escaping from prison. Kara's role includes protecting Lena, but by posing as a student in her engineering PhD program at Metropolis University.The problem is that Lena doesn't know Kara's protecting her.Another problem is that the more time Kara spends time with Lena, the harder it gets for her to deny her growing attraction to the younger Luthor.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, hello. I'm fairly new to writing for this fandom, but I've read a few great ones that inspired me to write this little piece of work. Enjoy.

Kara Danvers absentmindedly spun her pen with her fingers as she sat with her legs laid across the top of her desk. She was _bored_ —a feeling she rarely experienced with her job and a feeling she hated due to all the energy she had. She was a special operations agent of a classified government branch that did all sorts of missions. Some included going undercover to bust drug rings, playing detective to solve crimes, protecting important people of interest, even being security detail for events across the globe. It was overly classified that they didn’t have a department title. They existed to a select few, but remained relatively unknown to most of the world. They were just _there,_ and showed up when necessary. Either way, she loved her job and the spontaneity that came with it. 

 

But the current problem was that her team weren’t on any assignments. Everything seemed relatively normal and nothing was happening in National City that called for their involvement. There were a couple minor things in Metropolis and Gotham City, but it wasn’t anything the division in those cities couldn’t handle.

 

Her team was also one of the many reasons why she loved her job, most likely in the top three. The team consisted of Alex Danvers, Winn Schott, James Olsen, J’onn J’onzz, Lucy Lane, and Maggie Sawyer.

 

Alex Danvers was Kara’s older sister by three years. Adoptive sister. Kara was adopted by the Danvers when she was fourteen years old because her parents died in an explosion accident at their work, which was also the day that Kara went with them. Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers were longtime friends of her parents, so when they had heard about the accident, they immediately took Kara into their custody with no hesitation. The sisters’ relationship didn’t get off to the best start. The two knew each other, but they wouldn’t have called themselves friends.

 

Alex resented Kara for shifting the family dynamics while the younger Danvers tried to appease the older sister. There was constant fighting and bickering. At one point, Eliza threatened to send Alex to boarding school in Germany, which had no impact except the fighting and bickering became minimal. But one day, Alex saw Kara getting bullied at school by a girl named Leslie and stepped in, saying something along the lines of, _Only I could bully Kara, so please back the fuck off my sister_. From that point, the sisters slowly built a relationship that no one would’ve guessed they weren’t blood related. They became inseparable.  

 

Once Alex went off to university, Kara couldn’t wait until she could follow her sister to Seattle. Alex wanted to be a medical doctor while Kara wanted to be a reporter. Alex did become a doctor for a little while, receiving her doctorate from University of Washington, and worked at the same hospital as her mother once she moved back to National City.

 

Kara, on the other hand, realized her desire to help people in whichever way she could. It was how she ended up joining the police academy in Seattle since she was already there with Alex, while dropping out from the journalism program at University of Washington. She still finished with a degree in criminal justice due to Alex’s persistence. It then progressed from police officer to detective to federal agent. She was chosen in this division due to her outstanding record and skills on the field. She had no fear when it came to jumping out of a plane or getting in the crossfires to protect someone. Her injury count was low, but it didn’t stop her from getting lectured by Alex who constantly told her that she “wasn’t made of steel, so for fucks sake, stop jumping in front of bullets.”

 

She did move through the ranks pretty quickly compared to the norm, and was able to relocate back to National City a short while after Alex moved back. Her sister ended up joining the team due to Kara’s referral, but also because of her healthcare background where it was seen as an asset to have someone with a medical specialization.

 

Winn Schott, Kara’s best friend from her time in Seattle, was an every day guy. He didn’t look intimidating in the least bit. He was of average height, a little mousy, but wouldn’t hurt a fly. Most likely be the one to get hurt by a fly. That was besides the point. Though he could hack into the federal government’s database. That being the reason how he was recruited onto the team. It started as a drunken bet with Alex, and the guy actually did it _while_ drunk. He got into loads of trouble, but with the Danvers sisters’ persuasion, they were able to avoid his arrest while recruiting him to the team. The government thought that they might as well have someone that if they could break into the system, they should be able to protect the system.

 

James Olsen was a tall, dark, and handsome guy that was a photo journalist in Metropolis. He had a very calming aura to him that put a lot of people at ease when you spoke with him. He was best friends with Kara’s cousin, Clark Kent, which was odd to hear when she found out. James was also in the military after he graduated high school, specifically navy special ops. He also went through a similar realization like Kara that he wanted to help people. But unlike his blonde friend, he didn’t have to start from the bottom. With his experience and rank after leaving the navy, he was personally recommended by his commanding officers. He planned on re-enlisting again after making it as a photographer for a bit, but his superiors thought he’d be better suited for this line of work.

 

J’onn Jonzz was a man of very few words, but highly respected among his colleagues. He was the leader of the team, making sure that what they were doing went according to plan and if it didn’t, he would think of the backup plan. He was also the director of their division in National City. He was the father figure of the group especially to the Danvers sisters. Once Jeremiah Danvers died suddenly of a heart attack while the girls were on a mission, he was immediately there for the girls, giving them some time off to be with their mother in Midvale, as was the rest of the team. J’onn had already been in this department since its birth and had seen a lot of things happen.

 

Lucy Lane was a short, spunky girl who was originally aspiring to be dancer. But coming from a military family, she opted to follow the family tradition. Her sister, Lois on the other hand, was a reporter in Metropolis for the _Daily Planet_ , who was married to Clark. Lucy was the team lawyer who dealt with communication between other divisions and overlooked contracts from third parties when the team was recruited, but had a very active role on the field too. She was trained in Krav Maga because her father thought that it would be useful for self-defense, so she specialized heavily in hand to hand combat.

 

Maggie Sawyer was a fiery little Latina from Nebraska. She was originally a detective for the National City Police Department. She kept running into the team during high profiled cases, which ended up to be very useful because she played a significant role in their successes more often than not. J’onn offered Maggie a position on the team as someone who looked at things as a big picture. As she said before, _I’m a detective. I detect things_. She was the newest addition to the team.

 

Each one of them brought something different to the table and it worked for them. They balanced each other out. They knew their role and when to push the other into something they’d be good at. Plus, it was Kara’s second family. They’ve been through all the highs and all the lows together. There was nothing that they hid from each other. Well, maybe that Alex harbored a bit of crush on Maggie. But only the younger sister knew that.

 

Kara felt something soft hit the side of her head, placing the pen on her desk, she turned and saw a crumpled paper ball. She scanned the room to see who threw it at her, and saw Alex giving her a scowl.

 

“What the heck Alex?” Kara rolled her eyes, picking up the paper ball and tossing it back onto Alex’s desk directly across from her.

 

“You kept dropping the damn pen on the desk. It was irritating me,” Alex said flatly, throwing the paper ball in a nearby trash can.  

 

Kara’s eyes widened. She didn’t realize she was that zoned out with everything. It was an automatic reaction to pick up the pen once it fell out of her hands, “Oh.” Was all she replied.

 

“Yeah ‘oh.’ What’s on your mind?” Alex asked, swiveling her chair to face her sister.

 

“I’m just so bored,” Kara sighed exaggeratedly causing her sister to snicker.

 

“Really? Bored? You? Oh no,” Alex sarcastically replied, turning back to the computer on her desk. “Look, it’s about time to leave. Do you wanna go to the bar before we head home?”

 

Kara’s mood perked up after hearing that it was time to leave. She loved her job, but she’d rather be doing something fun than sitting around waiting, “Yes, let’s do it. I’ll text everyone else to see if they want to join!”

 

The blonde Danvers abruptly stood up, placing her pen into her neatly organized pen container. She was about to walk towards the locker room to grab her stuff, but J’onn’s voice stopped her.

 

“Kara, Alex, we received an assignment.”

 

Kara internally groaned. She had already set her sights on one of the many cocktails the bar the team frequented. It had a lot of sugar in it so she barely ever tasted the alcohol. For that reason alone, she usually drank more than she intended to. Alex ended up being the one that had to carry her home.

 

“Meet in the briefing room in five minutes.”

 

“Yes sir,” Alex replied while Kara changed directions to said room with her sister in tow.

 

When the two walked into the room, mostly everyone was there except for Lucy and J’onn, which was standard protocol since they decided whether or not an assignment was worth the team’s time. Alex sat in the empty seat next to Maggie while Kara sat in between Winn and James. Kara shot her older sister a knowing look while Alex turned her head, ignoring her sister, and started conversing quietly with her crush.

 

“What do we know?” Kara asked the two men.

 

James shrugged indifferently, not in the mood to talk, while Winn replied, “Not entirely sure. It seemed pretty abrupt, so it’s probably some emergency.”

 

“It can’t be that much of an emergency if we weren’t on our way to the tarmac,” Kara reasoned.

 

“You have a point, but I overheard J’onn talking and he seemed concerned.”

 

“J’onn’s always concerned, how could you even tell?” Kara asked rhetorically as she crossed her legs. She was starting to get impatient with all this waiting. She just wanted to do something. _Anything_ at this point, even if it meant rescuing a cat from a tree.

 

Winn shrugged and turned back to the tablet he never seemed to be without. Granted, said tablet did practically everything and anything he programmed it to. It was necessary for him to have at all times whether it was to pull up files or check what time a restaurant closed on Yelp. Kara sometimes even used it to see which places had the highest rated potstickers in town. That got her in trouble because its use “was work-related, not your unhealthy obsession with potstickers” or whatever the team teased her.   

 

“Holy shit,” Winn blurted out as he read the assignment file, causing all heads to turn in his direction.

 

“What is it?” Alex asked while Kara tried to peer over his shoulder.

 

“Please remain in your seat, little Danvers,” Lucy said as her and J’onn walked into the room, carrying folders. James immediately stood up to help the two distribute the files to each member.

 

Once everyone got a folder, they quickly opened it to see what the assignment was. Kara was the last one to get a folder, most likely at Lucy’s doing just to irritate the blonde. She opened the folder and quickly read the summary.

 

_Lex Luthor escaped during maximum security transport, Tuesday, August 21. Unknown whereabouts. Last seen in Metropolis. Possible rendezvous with mother, Lillian Luthor. Mission – protect Lena Luthor._

 

This happened _yesterday_.

 

Kara’s eyes widened in slight horror at the realization. Lex Luthor was a force to be reckoned with. He was the man who orchestrated several bombs to go off simultaneously in ten cities across the globe five years ago. It was known to be one of the biggest terrorist attacks in human history. He killed over hundreds of thousands of people. The only concrete evidence authorities had against him was his younger sister, Lena, who testified against him in court when she was twenty years old. Her testimony was enough to put him away, but no one expected him to escape.

 

“Are you fucking serious?” Maggie was the first of the group to say anything.

 

“Yes,” J’onn said calmly, almost too calm for Kara’s liking. She knew something was up. “Unfortunately he escaped last night during a transfer from Metropolis to Gotham City that was off the books.”

 

“Clearly someone knew,” James sarcastically said while Lucy shot him an irritated look and the man rolled his eyes. Kara saw the whole exchange and knew something was going on between the two. She mentally noted to ask James about it later on.

 

“Thank you Mr. Olsen for stating the obvious. We’re going to send part of the team to investigate the area where he escaped. There was an explosion that killed three of the four officers transporting him. The one survivor was quickly transported to National City General Hospital in critical care making him under our jurisdiction and protection,” J’onn informed.

 

“Well at least we might have a witness,” Maggie said somewhat hopeful.

 

“That’s what we’re hoping for. James and Maggie, I’m sending you both to the hospital to make sure nothing happens to the other officer. We don’t know if Lex will want to tie up loose ends,” J’onn instructed, while the two nodded in affirmation.

 

“So what’s this about protecting Lena Luthor?” Kara asked curiously, while everyone took down notes.

 

“Exactly what it sounds like. We protect Lena Luthor,” J’onn stated.

 

“But who wants us to protect her? I’m not understanding how we got involved with this. Doesn’t this seem more of a private security manner? Or even, a matter for the Metropolis department? We’re on the other side of the country for us to be involved,” Kara said, confused with what her team could possible do.

 

“You’re right, Kara. It is a private security manner, but it was her best friend, Samantha Arias, that specifically requested us.”

 

Kara knew that name.

 

It was a name that was consistently associated with Lena in the tabloids.

 

Samantha Arias was the former CFO of L-Corp, Lena’s family business that she revamped after her brother was sent to prison, and current interim CEO while the younger Luthor went back to school for her PhD. She was also Lena’s only close friend. The two had been friends since grade school and stayed relatively close throughout the years. Even though Sam was older than Lena by a few years—three to be exact—they were still friends. She also had a young daughter, Ruby.  

 

“What’s her reason?” Kara questioned as she flipped through the thin file, searching for an answer.

 

“I spoke with her on the phone and she has suspicion to believe that Lex is going after her sister. She feels more confident in our abilities than the Metropolis department since that division is still relatively new compared to us.”

 

Kara hummed in agreement. It made sense now. Lena had to be protected because a bounty was most likely placed on her head the second the court found her brother guilty. But in a true Lex fashion, he wanted to do it himself. It had been five years, so it was a long time coming.

 

“So what’s the plan?” Alex asked, placing the closed file in front of her.

 

“You two,” J’onn pointed to James and Maggie, “Will be going to National City General Hospital to keep the witness safe at all costs. I do not want him alone at any time. One of you has to stay with him. He goes by Mon-El, but his real name is Michael Matthews. Once he wakes up, I want you to ask some questions if his memory allows it.”

 

“Got it,” Maggie replied. “Do you want us to go now?”

 

“Definitely. The sooner we’re with him, the better the chances are of keeping him safe and alive,” J’onn said, while the two agents stood up, nodding and quickly making their way out of the room.

 

J’onn turned to Lucy and Winn, “Agent Lane, you and I will be making our way to the scene of the explosion to see if we could find any evidence. Agent Schott, you will manage here at headquarters to trace Lillian Luthor’s whereabouts and filter any information we find.”

 

“Got it boss,” Winn clapped his hands together, ready to leave. But J’onn stopped him.

 

“Hold on, Agent Schott, I still need you for something.”

 

Winn shrugged and started working on his tablet. Kara and Alex looked at each other, knowing that they’d be partnered up. They usually were since they worked well together.

 

“Alex,” J’onn started. “You will be assigned to Samantha Arias.”

 

Alex looked at J’onn in surprise, “What? Why? She doesn’t need protection.”

 

“You’re right, she doesn’t. But she’s a close friend of Lena. We have to gain intel on Lena through her friend before actually meeting with her. Also, being the only close friend of Lena makes her a possible target. Lex might use Sam to get to Lena. Miss Arias knows of this possibility and she agrees.”

 

“But what about Kara?” Alex questioned, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Well, Kara will be protecting Miss Luthor,” Kara’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

“By myself?” She asked in disbelief.

 

“You are more than capable of doing this on your own. You and your sister will be staying together in Metropolis—”

 

“We’re going to Metropolis?!” Both sisters said at the same time, looking at each other in disbelief.

 

“I don’t see the problem. L-Corp headquarters is located there while Miss Luthor is studying at Metropolis University. You both have been in situations where you’ve moved to a different city for a while,” J’onn shrugged indifferently.

 

“It’s not that…” Kara trailed off.

 

“Then what is it, Miss Danvers?”

 

“I just wasn’t expecting it that’s all,” Kara muttered to herself, crossing her arms like a child.

 

J’onn’s eyes crinkled at Kara’s gesture. He knew that Kara didn’t mind moving around, but he also knew that Kara was more upset that her and Alex weren’t directly working together.

 

“Oh yeah, there’s one more thing Kara,” J’onn said.

 

“What?”

 

“Lena doesn’t know you’re protecting her, and she can’t know either.”

 

“How the hell is that supposed to happen?” Alex asked bluntly before Kara could process what J’onn said.

 

“We’re going to have Agent Schott,” J’onn pointed at Winn, who looked up from his tablet, “Enroll you into Metropolis University as an engineering major for the new term that starts in two Mondays.”

 

“You want me to what now?” Kara said in disbelief. “You want me to be an engineering student? I literally know nothing about that stuff. How am I supposed to meet Lena?”

 

“You don’t have to pass. It’s actually better if you’re not passing so then it could be an excuse for Miss Luthor to tutor you. She’ll be a TA in some of the classes you will be taking as well as a student in other classes, so it’s a perfect opportunity for you to meet her,” J’onn explained while Kara leaned back into the chair.

 

The blonde didn’t want to go back to college. She hated school. She wouldn’t have made it without Alex’s support. But granted, it wasn’t like she actually had to try. It was all a ploy for her to meet and befriend Lena.

 

A thought briefly crossed her mind though.

 

“When would I tell her that I’m protecting her?” Kara wondered.

 

“You won’t, unless you absolutely have to,” J’onn said.

 

“You mean when her life is in danger,” Kara clarified while the man nodded in affirmation.

 

The four people still present in the room continued discussing possible plans while Kara blocked them out, lost in her own thoughts. It was a lot to process for her. She had to protect Lena Luthor while also _pretending_ to be her friend. It would make much more sense if they were upfront with her about why Kara’s basically going to follow her around like a lost puppy—borderline stalker if you sat down and really thought about it. She hated _lying_ to people and she had a gut feeling the younger Luthor wasn’t a fan of being lied to, no matter the intention.

 

_And_ Kara had to go back to school. In engineering no less. She was sure it was going to be something with computer engineering since she read of Lena’s presence in the tech industry. _How much more complicated could my life get_ , she thought bitterly.

 

Kara wondered why Samantha Arias didn’t want Lena to know she had protection. _Probably a pride thing_ , she speculated. It was a good thing that her best friend was looking out for her. Now all Kara had to figure out was how she was going to talk to Lena Luthor. It seemed impossible for anyone to get remotely close to her. She always seemed to have her guard up in the rare events her team patrolled and Lena happened to also be in attendance. Kara was never in a close enough vicinity to directly interact with her, but caught small glimpses of her, thinking she was one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen.

 

_No_ , _you can’t fancy over her, this has to be strictly professional and it’s for her safety_ , Kara internally scolded herself for remotely thinking that way.

 

“Kara?” Alex broke her younger sister out of her thoughts, since the briefing finished and leaving them the only two left in the room. “What’s up?”

 

“Hmm?” Kara hummed as she turned to face her sister, who was giving her a concerned look. “Oh sorry, just kind of zoned out there.” She looked around the room and noticed everyone had already left.

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yeah,” Kara said a little too quickly, but covered up with, “Are we still going to get a drink?”

 

“I don’t think it’s the best idea, we have to pack up everything we need in two days. We leave Friday,” Alex informed, knowing her sister wasn’t focusing on the conversation she just missed.

 

“Fair enough,” Kara said simply as she gathered her things, standing up. “I’ll see you at home later on then.”

 

With that, Kara walked out of the room. She chose to ignore the look her sister gave her. She did, however, push any non-related work thoughts of Lena Luthor out of her mind.

 

\--

 

The next two days went by quicker than Kara hoped for. She and her sister had to pack about a month’s worth of clothes while also gaining some intel on Samantha Arias and Lena Luthor. It didn’t help that whenever Alex asked her anything remotely related about Lena, Kara would shut down and give her sister the cold shoulder. Things weren’t tense between the two, but the older sister sensed something was up.

 

But the thing was, Kara herself didn’t know what was making herself so broody and anxious about the assignment. She was hoping she’d be able to figure things out on her own, but sooner or later, she knew her sister was going to corner her to make her talk about it.

 

Whatever _it_ was.

 

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how one would look at the situation, the officer that was present during transport survived the surgery, but was placed in a medically induced coma due to severe lung damage. Now it was a waiting game until he woke up. If he did wake up. The doctors were hopeful that he would since it wasn’t as severe as brain damage or heart damage, but they were still unsure. The doctors said it could be today or in a month, there was no prediction when Mon-El would be able to breathe on his own.

 

J’onn called in people from another division in Central City, Barry Allen, and Starling City, Oliver Queen, to guard Mon-El. The two men owed the team a favor and were more than willing to help. It also allowed Maggie and James to take on other tasks. Maggie was to go with the Danvers sisters to Metropolis and James was assigned with Lucy to investigate the prison where Lex originally was since her and J’onn couldn’t find anything at the scene of the explosion. They realized everything had been disintegrated, no trace of evidence. Maggie found it odd while James was confused how that was possible.

 

It was mid-morning that Friday. The sisters were in a private car that was driving them to their department’s airbase to fly out to Metropolis. Maggie was to meet them there, and Kara could tell her sister was a bit nervous. Alex and Maggie had never been assigned a case together, though Kara was there, the blonde knew the two women would have a few moments alone during their stay in Metropolis. Kara would be on her own for the most part once the school term started.

 

Kara had to go under a different alias—Kara Zor-El. She wasn’t sure how she was given last name, but Winn was watching a show about a superhero and thought the name suited her. She also didn’t understand why she had to go under an alias in the first place. Alex explained that if they all happened to meet each other with Samantha included, it might be suspicious and blow their cover. Kara thought the team was making it way more complicated than it needed to by piling on more lies, but whether or not she agreed, she had no choice.

 

“Excited that Maggie’s going with us?” Kara asked teasingly, breaking the silence in the car.

 

Alex choked on the sip of coffee and placed the cup in the cup holder that separated the two women. Kara started laughing at her sister while she softly hit her back to make sure she wouldn’t die on her. Clearing her throat, she turned to face her sister with a straight face, “No.” A blatant lie.

 

“You know, if you’re going to lie, you should do it to someone who doesn’t know you,” Kara shrugged indifferently, grabbing her cup of hot chocolate.

 

“I am not lying!” Alex quickly denied, her voice rising in pitch. A blush was coming on her face, causing Kara to smirk at her sister.

 

“It’s alright Alex, maybe now you’ll be able to make a move,” Kara said simply, taking a sip and sighing gratefully at how the liquid made her feel warm.

 

“What!?” Alex looked at her sister incredulously. “You know we can’t date other employees!”

 

“Says who?” Kara raised an eyebrow as she continued to take small sips. “I’ve read the department manual front and back, there’s nothing that says it’s against employee relationships. The only thing it says that if two consenting adults are dating, they have to fill out a form and get approval from their boss or director. In our case, J’onn’s both. Therefore it’s okay.”

 

Her sister sat back into her seat, looking out the window. Kara could practically see the wheels turning in her sister’s head. As they pulled onto the airstrip, Alex said, “Well, let’s see how Metropolis goes. Who knows how long we’re going to be here.”

 

Kara hummed in agreement as the car stopped in front of the jet. As the sisters moved to get out of the car, Kara noticed Maggie was already there, taking her luggage out of the car. She surprisingly only had two luggages, while the two sisters brought five luggages each.

 

“This will be a great impression,” Kara heard Alex mutter to herself. The blonde chuckled at her sister’s comment.

 

“Hey Alex,” Maggie walked over to greet them. “Little Danvers.”

 

“Hey Maggie,” Kara said cheerfully while Alex seemed to forget her manners, she gently shoved her sister to say something. “Hi Maggie, ready for this?” The older brunette greeted shyly.

 

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I haven’t been to Metropolis in a while,” Maggie informed as they made their way to the car’s trunk. Upon opening the trunk, her eyes widened, “Holy shit, where are you guys going?! Is the plane going to be able to fly with all this luggage?”

 

Kara laughed as she started to pull their luggages out, “I’m hoping so, this is actually minimal for us. We sort of like to be prepared. Plus, I’m going back to college, so I need to have enough outfits.”

 

“There’s this thing called laundry, Little Danvers. Most people do it,” Maggie huffed as she pulled out more luggages while Alex rolled them closer to the plane. “Jesus fuck, it’s like it never ends.”

 

The two women finally took out the remaining luggages and brought them over to where Alex was organizing their belongings with the flight crew. It took a bit of time, but they were able to configure all their stuff in the plane’s cargo with a bit of colorful commentary from Maggie, making it all the more entertaining.

 

Once they entered the small plane that seated twelve people, Kara took one of the window seats while the other two women sat across the aisle, quietly in discussion that the blonde had no interest in. The flight to Metropolis was about five hours, which was plenty of time for her to catch up on some sleep she was unable to have these past couple days. By the time they arrived, it would be early evening. She had a feeling that they wouldn’t get any sleep the first few nights as they would be unpacking and setting up the apartment. The sisters would be living together as Maggie would be occupying the apartment across the hall in a building near Metropolis University.  

 

She was excited that they were on assignment, but she couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy about what was going to happen. None of them had any idea where Lex was or what his plans were, which scared her the most. J’onn reassured that they would figure it out. They always did. She knew that this assignment’s time frame in particular was indefinite. This could be over before the term started in which Lex is found and captured, or it could last until Lena graduated at the end of the year. Hell, it could be five years out and they would still be protecting Lena and Samantha. There was no telling how long this would be. The not knowing part of the situation gave her anxiety, but it was manageable. Helping people was what she loved the most, no matter the situation or circumstances.

 

Kara started to dose off as one of the two flight attendants began to explain the regulatory flight procedures. The last thing she heard before she fell into a slumber was her sister quietly murmuring, “I hope Kara doesn’t develop feelings for Lena.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to give a little thanks to everyone that's read it, hell even clicking on it makes me happy. It's still a little slow, but bear with me! Enjoy this one! :)

The first week, once the three women touched ground in Metropolis, went by in a blur. There was so much each of them had to do. Kara had to unpack her stuff along with the department’s equipment that was sent over to their apartment, creating a little home base that allowed them to communicate with the others in National City, while Alex did the same on top of meeting with Samantha Arias almost every day, who Alex said liked to go by _Sam_ as “Samantha seemed too formal.” Maggie, on the other hand, left the sisters alone for the most part as she lived in Metropolis before moving to National City. She checked in with the sisters first thing in the morning to see if there was anything she could help with.  

 

Kara found it funny that Alex was continually flustered over Maggie’s mere presence whenever she knocked in the morning. Her sister told her in a not so polite tone to _fuck off_ while the blonde struggled to control her laughter. She didn’t understand why Alex didn’t make the first move. She saw Maggie’s obvious interest in her sister. But Alex was either in denial or completely oblivious. Regardless, the teasing wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon until she made a move. Or even if Maggie made a move, it might take the pressure off of Alex. Someone needed to make a move with all this unresolved tension.

 

As the blonde finished organizing her workspace in her room, she heard a knock on the door to see her sister standing in the doorway. “What’s up Alex?” Kara asked as she straightened out a couple framed pictures of her and the team.

 

“We have to meet Sam tonight, or you need to since I already have,” Alex said, walking into the room and sitting on Kara’s massive king sized bed that she insisted on having since she tended to sprawl out while she slept.

 

It was mid-Saturday afternoon, so she had plenty of time to lounge around and take a breath from the week before the night’s festivities.

 

“Okay, sounds fine with me,” Kara agreed indifferently as she rearranged a few more items on her desk. “Have you finished unpacking?”

 

“For the most part, yes. I finished with all the work stuff we need in the living room, but I haven’t exactly finished setting up my room,” Alex explained as she leaned back on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

 

Then the room was met with silence. 

 

After a few moments as she finished up organizing her desk, the blonde turned around to see the position her sister was in, wondering what she was thinking about, “Penny for your thoughts?” She sat down next to her sister, waiting for her response.

 

“I’m worried about this case,” Alex said quietly.

 

“Why?”

 

“When we meet Sam, she’ll explain to you what she knows. But what I can tell you is that I have a bad feeling about this one, Kara. I don’t know why nor do I know when, but it just feels like something terrible is going to happen,” Alex’s uncertainty was evident.

 

“I wouldn’t worry about it yet,” Kara reasoned, laying on her side facing her sister. “Seriously. There’s nothing we could do. I haven’t even met Lena yet.”

 

“But what happens if something _does_ happen to her before you meet her?”

 

“Let’s not think like that. I’m sure Sam is keeping tabs on Lena in some way shape or form,” Kara said optimistically, trying to hide her own doubts about the case to ease her sister.

 

“Yeah she is,” Alex muttered.

 

“Then we wait. If there’s any inclination that Lex is in the same vicinity of Lena, Winn will tell us and then we’ll be there,” Kara touched her sister’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

 

“Fine fine,” Alex closed her eyes, sleepily.

 

“Tired?”

 

“Definitely, it’s been a long week. I forgot to call our mother that we weren’t going to be in National City for an indefinite time, and she definitely chewed my ass out this morning,” Alex sighed.

 

Kara was also guilty of not informing her adoptive mother that they would be away in Metropolis, but with everything that was going on… It possibly slipped her mind. Eliza was always worried about her two daughters, especially Kara. She knew that Alex could take care of herself, but when it came to Kara, there was always a concern especially with losing her parents as a teenager. With the line of work her daughters chose, she had even more of a reason to worry about their well-being and safety.

 

“Oh snap! I didn’t call her either,” The blonde said sheepishly as her sister chuckled.

 

“Well you better do that. She did mention she hadn’t heard from you either, but knowing mom, you won’t get into as much trouble,” Alex stuck her tongue out.

 

“I’ll do that now,” Kara reached over to her phone that was sitting on her bedside table. “By the way, do you know when we’re suppose to report back to National City?”

 

“I spoke briefly with J’onn yesterday and he said that we’re only to report back if anything happens to Lena or we’re able to locate Lex,” Alex explained. “But we are given a little vacation to head back for Thanksgiving when you have your week long break. We also have the option to go back for the holidays after the semester’s done.”

 

“Gotcha, I’ll tell Eliza that we’re going to Midvale during that week,” Kara informed as her sister nodded her head. “I’m going to take this in the living room.” Pointing to her phone and her sister hummed in agreement.

 

_She’s going to fall asleep_ , Kara noticed her sister dosing becoming more apparent, “Wait before you fall asleep,” Alex opened one eye to see what her sister had to say. “What time are we meeting Sam tonight?”

 

“Around 7 at some bar, the address is on my phone,” Alex said drowsily as she made herself comfortable on her sister’s bed, snuggling against the pillows.

 

“Okay, I’ll let you sleep while I go talk to Eliza. I’ll wake you up at…” Kara glanced at the clock in her room, reading 4:42, “6 o’clock.”

 

“Yeah yeah,” Alex mumbled in agreement as Kara gave her sister a quick kiss on the forehead, and walked out of her room.

 

Dialing Eliza’s phone number, she sat on the living room couch and waited for her adoptive mother to pick up. She knew that Eliza generally had the weekends off. It was after the third ring that she answered.

 

“ _Hello?_ ”

 

“Hey Eliza, it’s me,” Kara hesitated, trying to gauge her reaction.

 

“ _Oh hi Kara! How’s it going? Alex told me you both will be in Metropolis for an assignment_ ,” Eliza spouted off.

 

“Yes—”

 

She barely gave Kara the chance to start her sentence before she continued, “ _You know, it wouldn’t hurt to tell me that you were both being relocated for assignment._ ” Kara heard the slight hurt in her mother’s voice.

 

“It’s not that we weren’t going to tell you!” Kara rushed out. “We were, it was all of a sudden. J’onn wanted us to get over here as soon as we can.”

 

“ _Oh Kara, I’m just giving you a hard time_ ,” Kara let out a sigh of relief as Eliza continued, “ _I know you and Alex have responsibilities when it comes to your line of work. I completely understand_.”

 

“Are you sure? I feel terrible for waiting almost two weeks to tell you this,” Kara asked, still feeling guilty.

 

“ _Yes, I’m sure. Don’t worry about it_ ,” Eliza said dismissively. “ _I got you good with my acting didn’t I?_ ”

 

Kara rolled her eyes, thankful that her adoptive mother couldn’t see the gesture, “Yeah yeah, you did. But I just wanted to call you to let you know about that and to tell you that we’ll be back in Midvale for a week during my Thanksgiving break.”

 

“ _Thanksgiving break?_ ” The older woman inquired.

 

“Oh shucks, umm. I’m not sure if I could discuss the exact details of the assignment, but I’m protecting a high profiled person of interest and it’s requiring me to go undercover as a college student,” Kara explained vaguely.

 

“ _Is it Lena Luthor?_ ” Kara’s eyes widened at the guess.

 

“What?! How would you know that?”

 

“ _Kara, I watch the news. It’s all over the news that Lex Luthor escaped. Such a terrible thing to happen. That poor girl can’t catch a break,”_ Eliza explained, making Kara realize how much she wasn’t keeping up with the outside world.

 

“Well yeah, it is Lena,” Kara confirmed.

 

“ _Just be careful okay? Take care of your sister, watch out for each other,_ ” The older Danvers said in a worried tone.

 

“Of course, we always do.”

 

“ _Good. I’ll speak to you and your sister sometime next week. Take care. Love you_.”

 

“Love you, Eliza. Bye!” Kara responded as she heard the line click, signaling that she hung up.

 

Sighing to herself, Kara placed her phone on the coffee table and stared out the window. It was a somewhat gloomy day in Metropolis, but it was still a bit warm. _Oh east coast weather. Stupid humidity_ , Kara thought. She picked up the personnel file her sister printed out that she didn’t have the chance to read yet. It was Sam’s. She knew Lena’s was still in a work in progress since she had to make it.

 

Opening the folder, she briefly skimmed through what her sister wrote down so far.

 

_Samantha Arias. Age 27. Adopted by Patricia Arias at age 1. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Has one daughter – Ruby Arias – age 11. Graduated from Metropolis University with a degree in business finance. Obtained Masters of Business Administration from Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania. Current interim CEO of L-Corp. Relationship with Lena Luthor – best friends even though “Lena likes to deny that we’re even acquaintances.”_

 

There was more information in the file, but the denial of acquaintances made her giggle. On paper, she gathered that Samantha Arias had a rough upbringing, but nevertheless she persisted and made something of herself. Kara was excited to meet Lena’s friend because she knew that this woman cared deeply for the people in her life. Especially if you were hiring a top secret government agency.

 

Checking the wall clock, she saw that she had enough time to start writing something about Lena Luthor—at least summarize from an internet search. She knew J’onn was going to breathe down her neck for it before she started school. More information would be added the more Kara interacted with the her. Some important information was most likely going to come from what Sam told her, which she was grateful that they were meeting tonight.

 

_I think I could squeeze in some food before I start_ , Kara internally said to herself, smiling at the thought.

 

“Oh there’s leftover potstickers!” Kara said excitedly as she stood up from the couch, throwing the file back on the coffee table and made her way into the kitchen.

 

All intentions of making a profile of Lena Luthor out the window.

 

\--

 

“Kara!” The blonde suddenly woke up on the couch, looking around her living room to find where the distressed voice was coming from. She saw her sister staring at her from the hallway.

 

“Jeez Alex, give a girl a heart attack why don’t you,” She sighed, noticing her sister rolling her eyes.

 

“You forgot to wake me up, but seeing as you fell asleep, I’m not surprised,” Alex said in a clipped tone, the irritation noted loud and clear.

 

“Ah, well…”

 

“Save it. Get ready. It’s 6:30, we’re going to be late,” Alex said briskly, turning to walk back into the hallway.

 

Kara groaned as she stood up to walk to her room. Her heart rate was coming down after being startled. She didn’t mean to fall asleep, but by eating the rest of the potstickers and then making pasta cause _she was still hungry_ , it sort of kind of put her in a food coma.

 

She quickly got ready, throwing a pair of blue jeans and loose fitting white t-shirt along with some ankle booties. She wanted to be ready before Alex so she wouldn’t irritate her sister that much by being late. She sat back down on the living room couch, absentmindedly scrolling through her social media feed to see what was going on in the world. Nothing really caught her attention, so she resorted to a game of Sudoku on her phone while she waited for Alex to get ready.

 

A few minutes later and almost completing a third puzzle, Alex walked into the living room wearing all black—black jeans, black shirt, black boots.

 

“Are you on a mission to steal something or what?” Kara asked rhetorically as she stood up, grabbing her purse from the coat stand near the door.

 

“Piss off,” Alex said. “Technically this is a mission.”

 

“It is, but you’re dressed like you’re going to either break into a bank or jump out of the shadows on an unsuspecting person,” Kara giggled, causing her her sister to crack a small smile.

 

“You know that all I wear _is_ black. So this isn’t anything new.”

 

“It isn’t, but still. At least dress like you’re going to have a good time tonight,” Alex shrugged at her sister’s comment as Kara opened the door to Maggie with her hand in the air, ready to knock on the door. “Oh Maggie! I didn’t know you were going with us.”

 

The Latina chuckled, “Ha, yeah. Your sister texted me earlier today inviting me out. I hope that’s alright.”

 

“Of course! The more, the merrier,” Kara said cheerfully as her and her sister stepped out into the hallway, locking the door behind them. Alex briefly greeted the other team member as they made small talk about their day down the stairs to Maggie’s car. She designated herself as the driver since she knew Metropolis and decided she wasn’t in the mood to drink.

 

The car ride to the bar, which was called the Ace o’Clubs, was enjoyable. It was a bit of a drive from their apartment complex. Alex forced Kara to sit in the front passenger seat so she wouldn’t have to deal with her sister’s remarks later about being in close proximity with the Latina. Other than that, they talked about work related things like what the other team members have been doing—James and Lucy didn’t find anything suspicious in Lex’s prison cell except a journal, but were also in the process of interrogating the guards as Winn was figuring out a means to track Lex and Lillian.

 

The conversation shifted from work, and they began to exchange personal stories to get to know each other a little more.

 

The Danvers sisters learned that Maggie’s parents kicked her out at the age of fourteen for writing a letter to a girl that she liked a little more than friends in her class, which led to her staying with her aunt until she graduated high school. She explained that she wasn’t upset anymore as she told the two other women in the car, but Kara picked up on the sadness in her voice when she told the story. The blonde decided to share a little bit with Maggie about her parents and their death.

 

It wasn’t something Kara talked about a lot, but when she did, she always felt lighter afterwards. It was hard to talk about her parents’ tragedy. She thought about them every single day since it happened. In the beginning, she had nightmares about the explosion. Walking back to the lab where her parents were working and seeing it blow up in flames was traumatic in itself. She woke up screaming in the middle night sometimes, where Alex would call Eliza in their shared room to comfort her. But once Alex and Kara formed some resemblance of a relationship, she would soothe her back to sleep.

 

The nightmares eventually stopped and Kara started to feel a little more like herself before her life changed. It was until her senior year of high school where she felt relatively normal. Well, as normal as she could be. The pain and longing of missing her parents was always there, but she had it under control. Though, there were still times as an adult where she had those nightmares. Those usually came around the time of their death in the middle of January.

 

Once they arrived, it was about ten after the hour, they quickly found parking and walked in, looking for Samantha Arias. It wasn’t that crowded for a Saturday night. There were some people here and there, spread out throughout the bar, but it was still early. Alex was the one that noticed Sam before the other two. She motioned them to follow her to the booth.

 

As they approached, Kara noticed that Sam was pretty. The pictures she saw in the tabloids didn’t do her justice. She was an olive skinned brunette that greeted them with a warm smile. Alex opted for the seat next to her as the other two women sat across from them with Kara directly across from Sam.

 

“Hi,” Sam said in a friendly tone, extending a hand out to the blonde. “I’m Samantha Arias, but please call me Sam.”

 

“Hi Sam, I’m Kara Danvers. Alex’s younger sister,” Kara said shyly as she took the hand of the older woman. She let go of the hand somewhat abruptly as her and Maggie introduced themselves. Alex shot her an odd look, but she shrugged indifferently. Not wanting to give away that she found herself the slightest bit attracted to Sam.

 

The four women made polite conversation before a server came by their table to take their drink orders and asked if they wanted any food. Kara ordered the sweetest drink the server recommended while Alex opted for a glass of scotch. Maggie stuck with water as Sam decided to join Alex for a glass of scotch. Surprisingly enough, Kara didn’t order food because she was still full from her potstickers and pasta from earlier. But Alex, being the ever knowing sister, ordered the table a pepperoni pizza along with some garlic bread. _Just in case_ , she teased her sister.

 

When the server left, Sam interlaced her fingers on the table and gave the women at the table a slightly forced smile. It looked uncomfortable for her to be there, but it seemed she was putting on a brave face.

 

Maggie started off with a simple question, “So what do you know about Lex?”

 

Sam sighed, shoulders dropping, a look of defeat crossing her features, “I know as much about it that you do. Lena wasn’t even informed that Lex was being transferred.”

 

“Which is a standard protocol to inform family members of any transfers,” Alex commented, the server returning with their drinks.

 

“He has an inside man working for him?” Maggie raised an eyebrow, sipping her water.

 

“Most likely. Alex told me that your team has other agents interviewing the guards, which is a good thing,” Sam shrugged. “Lena was furious that no one informed her. She threatened to sue the prison. She didn’t say it in so many words, but I could tell she was also a bit scared.”

 

“I’d be scared too if my brother escaped from _maximum security_ ,” Maggie stated bluntly.

 

“Where is she right now?” Kara spoke up softly, wondering about the safety of the woman she was sent here to protect.

 

“She’s at L-Corp, toying with whatever in the basement. I honestly have no clue. Whenever I visit her down there, there’s a lot of stuff every where and pieces of things that aren’t connected. Engineering crap I have no interest in,” Sam said bluntly, as she took a sip of scotch, making a slight face of disgust at the burn of the amber liquid.

 

“Is she always there?” Kara asked curiously.

 

“For the most part, yes. If she’s not on school grounds, she’s somewhere on company property. Basement with all of the L-Corp technology. My office, technically hers. She’s hardly ever at her own penthouse to begin with, but she goes there to grab clothes and what not. But I’ve been making her stay with Ruby and I out in the suburbs ever since Lex escaped. At least when she wants the comfort of a bed instead of a couch,” Sam explained. “She was against it at first, but I reasoned that it was for her safety.”

 

“No, yeah that makes sense. I’d rather have her be safe by staying with someone she knows rather than going back to her place alone,” Kara replied softly as Alex gave her a curious look. Continuing to ignore the varying looks her sister was giving her so far this evening, she asked, “Did Alex fill you in on my role in all of this?”

 

“Briefly, she said that it would be better if you explained it to me,” Sam nodded towards Alex who was intently listening on the conversation, while Maggie scanned their surroundings in the case that anyone was listening to their conversation.

 

“Well,” Kara started off, “I’m here to protect Lena obviously. Since that was what you asked my team to do in the first place while also figuring out where Lex is to bring him into custody. But the way that I’m going about it is that I’m playing the role of a student that will be in the same courses as Lena once the term starts at Metropolis University.”

 

“Wait, sorry to interrupt and not trying to offend you either, you’re going to be in the same classes as Lena?” Sam looked at her as if she was crazy.

 

“Yes?” Kara furrowed her eyebrows.

 

“You do know that Lena is in a doctorate program for engineering right? She’s at the top of her class, while also being a teacher’s assistant.”

 

“I knew that much about her,” Kara said, rolling her eyes. “I’m supposed to be her friend, or if I can’t be her friend at first, ask her to tutor me because everyone knows I’ll need it. I’m not actually in her doctorate program. I’m in some of her engineering classes. Another agent back in National City, Winn, hacked into the school’s server to see her schedule, and enrolled me in those classes. There may be one or two classes where we aren’t together.”

 

“Huh, you’re going to befriend Lena?” Sam questioned.

 

“Yes?” Kara answered unsurely.

 

Sam sighed and took a deep breath, “You may have a hard time with that.”

 

“Why?” Alex asked as Kara waited patiently for the response.

 

“Lena is…” She trailed off. “Well, Lena. Very closed off. Very high walls. Very reluctant for anyone to get to know her. Don’t get me wrong, she’s very charming when she wants to be and she has appeal that draws people in. However, I’ve known her since we were young. It took maybe four? Five years? For her to talk about anything else besides school. By the time, she opened up to me, I was already in my second year at university and she was a senior in high school. Lena skipped a grade. So when I was a senior in high school, she was a sophomore. But anyways, back on topic, Lena called me out of the blue one day. We texted back and forth on occasion, updating each other with our lives. But nothing ever deep. I had Ruby to worry about and Lena was still in high school. I did make Lena be Ruby’s godmother against her will, and she’s been spoiled rotten ever since.”

 

Kara smiled at the obvious affection Sam has for Lena, just by the simple way of her talking about her best friend.  

 

“Her dad died. Of colon cancer. Stage four,” Kara’s heart dropped. “It was going on for a few years already, and she came home that day to him unconscious on the dining room floor. No one was home, no servants, no maids, no Lillian, no Lex, no one. Just her. She immediately called 911 and they brought him to the emergency room. He was dead when she found him, she didn’t know. She was only seventeen. She was crying on the phone. Lena never cried. I’ve witnessed her arm break clean during a field hockey match and the only thing she did was curse the team medic. I told her to visit me as soon as she could, and she did right after the funeral.

 

“Her mother blamed her for his death, which was absurd because how the hell was it her fault you know? There was always this distance between her and Lillian, especially since Lena was adopted by them when she was four. They weren’t close to begin with, but Lionel’s death made their relationship nonexistent. From that point on, Lena just started telling me about herself in greater detail. She told me shortly after the funeral that she was actually a Luthor from an affair her father had with an Irish woman way back then, not just a lucky child who was adopted into a wealthy family,” Sam finished, revealing more than Kara expected of the younger Luthor.

 

Although more people started to show up at the bar, the table was quiet. A thick tense air present, even after the server brought the food out. Kara made no attempt to grab a slice of pizza. She didn’t know to feel, she didn’t have an appetite. She wanted to hug Lena, but she knew she couldn’t. At least _not yet_. Knowing this type of personal information about someone wasn’t something shared lightly or this fast. It was something people earned to know about you, but it only seemed like her best friend was the only one that knew the intricacies that made Lena, _Lena_. She felt guilty for knowing this about her without _her_ being the one to tell her about it. She knew that Sam was telling them all of this because Kara needed to mentally prepare herself to what her first encounter with Lena could be like.

 

And from what Kara pieced together, it wasn’t going to be easy. To approach her. To talk to her. To get her to open up. Any of it.

 

“Was Lena close to her father?” Kara asked, breaking the somewhat tense silence of the table a few moments later.

 

“I wouldn’t say they were close,” Sam paused, thinking of how to word what she wanted to say next. “Lionel favored Lena more as Lillian favored Lex. So you could see how the impact of Lionel’s death on Lena.”

 

“I see,” Kara said in a neutral tone, absorbing all the information.

 

“What about Lex? What was her relationship like with him?” Maggie wondered.

 

“Lex adored Lena while Lena idolized her big brother. Regardless of their eight year age gap, they were close as children as far as I could remember. Even while Lena was in high school. It wasn’t until about a year after Lionel’s death where their relationship started drifting apart. Lena was starting at National City University while Lex was in Metropolis, adjusting to his role as CEO,” Sam explained, absentmindedly swirling her glass in her hand.

 

“What happened? How did they drift apart?” Maggie prodded as the Danvers sisters sat, intently listening.

 

“Lena mentioned during our conversations that her brother was acting odd. I knew Lex, to an extent. He was very eccentric and out there. Arrogant at times, but had an obvious soft spot for his younger sister. It wasn’t out of the norm for me to see him as being _odd_ , but Lena noticing meant something,” The brunette shrugged indifferently, sipping the scotch. “Then all of sudden one day, he snapped, detonating god knows how many explosives. It crushed Lena that she wasn’t able to stop him even though she knew something was going on.”   

 

The information Sam was giving them was overload to Kara. It was a lot to process. She started to feel a migraine come on, so she downed her untouched beverage all in one go. The other women at the table looked at her a bit surprised.

 

Alex was the one that commented, “You okay there, Kara?”

 

The blonde nodded her head, letting the liquid slide down her throat and settling in her stomach, “It’s just a lot to process.”

 

“Hey,” Sam reached out to grab Kara’s hands. “I know it’s a lot, but I want you to know this about Lena because she can be _really_ difficult to talk to if you don’t know her. She’s used to people lying to her. Hell, her whole life was pretty much a lie up until her father’s death. And yes, I know we’re lying by not outright telling her that I hired a government agency to protect her, but it’s in her best interest to stay safe and most importantly, alive.”

 

Sam’s words slightly comforted the blonde as she rubbed her the back of her hand soothingly. She still felt uneasy about lying to Lena right off the bat, but Sam did have a point. If Lena already knew that she had protection, she might not cooperate and do her best to evade Kara at all costs. The thing that worried Kara was when Lena finds out that the only reason why she was being her friend was to protect her from her brother. Her previous assumption of feeling like the younger Luthor hated lying was more evident given the information.

 

“So, is there anything else you’d like to ask me?” Sam broke Kara out of her thoughts. It had been a few moments since anyone spoke. “Either of you?”

 

Kara cleared her throat, “I-I think I’m good for now. You gave me a lot of information that I think I’ll know how to use when I meet her.” She gave the brunette across from her a small smile.

 

Maggie and Alex shook their heads, ending the seriousness of the conversation. Sam clapped her hands together, “Perfect! Are you guys ready to drink?”

 

“Wh-what?” Kara shot her sister a pleading look.

 

“Shots,” Sam stated as if it was the most obvious thing. “Ruby’s staying over at her friend’s house tonight. So I’m child free until tomorrow afternoon. I’m taking what I can get.”

 

Maggie shrugged, “I’m not drinking. I’m the driver. These two can drink.” She tilted her head towards the sisters who were looking at each other, unsure of what to do.

 

“Uh, well…” Kara trailed off, trying to read her sister’s expression.

 

Alex rolled her eyes, and shrugged, “Fuck it. It’s been a hell of a week, moving here and settling in. We deserve it.”

 

“Are you sure?” Kara asked, feeling the effects of her first drink starting to creep in.

 

“Yeah. First rounds on me,” Alex moved to stand up from the booth. Turning to the table, “Pick your poison.”

 

Kara noticed a cheshire grin form on Sam’s face, knowing that the drink of choice was going to be brutal. And something she probably avoided drinking.

 

“Tequila!”

 

Kara groaned, which caused Maggie and Alex to snicker. Sam looked triumphant as her older sister nodded, turning to walk towards the bar.

 

“This is going to be good,” Maggie smirked.

 

\--

 

It was not good.

 

It was too much.

 

_Way too much._

 

She hadn’t drank like that since her university days, which was about five years ago. Even then Kara rarely to never drank as much as she had last night. She was usually good with one or two drinks, not that much in excess.

 

Kara’s mind was awake before her body moved. She felt her head _throbbing_. She was also hyperaware of how her body felt. It felt sore? _What the heck did I do last night?_ _Did I get hit by a truck? Cause it sure feels like it,_ She mentally scolded herself. If she opened her eyes, she wouldn’t be able to see. She could already see the light through her eyelids. _That_ on its own hurt her. She turned over under the covers to be met with a soft thud. There was someone in bed _with_ her. She immediately sat up and opened her eyes to see who the owner of the body was, ignoring the blinding brightness of the sunlight visible through the curtains.

 

“Fuck.” She quietly muttered to herself as the body next to her slightly stirred.

 

Sam.  

 

She was in bed with Lena Luthor’s best friend. How this happened was beyond her. Sure things might’ve gotten a little fuzzy after the third shot they took together, but wouldn’t Alex have at least stopped her? The last thing she vividly remembered was twirling Sam on the dance floor with Maggie and Alex laughing along side them.

 

Kara realized that they were both naked under the covers—explains why her body felt oddly sore. Thankfully, the brunette was laying down on her stomach with the blanket placed on her back, covering her lower body. She wasn’t in her own bed, let alone her room, which made her wonder how they ended up here. She strategically laid back down to not wake up the woman next to her, closing her eyes with her forearm to cover her face. She knew she had to leave this situation as soon as possible. She also knew how much trouble she was going to be with Alex. If J’onn found out about this, she would be receiving another lecture on professionalism in the workplace.

 

Kara felt an arm drape across her stomach, making her freeze, as Sam cuddled into her side. She gently peeled the slung arm off her body while Sam mumbled something unintelligible. As the blonde turned to stealthily manuever herself off the bed, she miscalcuated the distance between the edge of the bed and the floor, taking half of bed comforter with her.

 

The loud thump on the bedroom floor stirred the other occupant on the bed awake as Kara laid on the ground, preparing herself for the awkwardness of the coming conversation.

 

“Kara?” Sam said, her voice slightly hoarse, as she scooted to the edge of the bed to see the blonde partially covered and looking embarrassed.

 

“Sam!” Kara’s voice came out in a high squeal. Clearing her throat, “Sam.” She said said again, a little more calm and at her normal tone.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Ye-yeah! Just wanted to use the bathroom, but I fell off the bed,” Kara rushed out, pulling the blanket over her body in an attempt to save what little dignity she had left.

 

“Oh,” Sam replied simply. “Okay. The bathroom’s right there.” The brunette pointed to the double doors.

 

“Perfect! I’ll be right back,” Kara said a little too excitedly as Sam gave a tired smile, laying back down.

 

Before she stood up, Kara made sure that Sam’s eyes were closed. The blonde quickly threw the blanket back on the bed. She scanned the room for her any of her clothes and saw them strewned across the floor. She picked up her wrinkled clothes and rushed into the bathroom. Her jeans had her phone in it, pulling it out to see if she had any notifications. There were a few message updates from the team back in National City and one from Alex. She unlocked her phone to see what her sister said.

 

_I’ll be back to pick you up at eleven_.

 

Kara furrowed her eyebrows at her sister’s message that was sent at 2:27 in the early morning. _What?! She voluntarily left me here?!_ She rolled her eyes at her phone, noting that time was 10:54.

 

“Crap,” She muttered as she hastily dressed. Giving herself a once over in the mirror, she deemed herself somewhat presentable. She stepped back into the room to see Sam dressed with a matching pajama shirt and shorts, and wrapping a robe around her.

 

“Hey,” The brunette said politely as Kara awkwardly stood in the bathroom doorway.

 

“Good morning.”

 

“I had fun last night,” Sam said, a flush starting to appear on Kara’s face.

 

Kara coughed and sputtered, “Yeah I did too. Look, Sam—”

 

Sam held her hands up, stopping Kara from a coming ramble, “I know what you’re going to say. And I get it. It was fun between us. I’m not looking for anything serious and I know you’re here on work. I hope we could be friends beyond that.”

 

Kara wasn’t expecting her to be so… understanding over their predicament. She gave the brunette a genuine smile and let out a sigh of relief, “Thank god, I thought it was going to be super awkward between us.”

 

Sam laughed, “I’ve had one night stands before. I know our situation is a little different since you technically work for me, but no hard feelings okay? It was fun. We had our moment. Now let’s move on.”

 

“Okay,” Kara agreed, a huge weight lifted off her shoulders.

 

The other woman walked over to where she was standing and leaned forward to give a hug, which Kara accepted, wrapping her arms around the brunette. Sam whispered teasingly into her ear, “You’re really good in bed, by the way. I feel like I’m going to be sore for a couple days.”

 

Kara coughed awkwardly, blushing even more now, as she leaned back to see Sam giving her a cheeky grin, “Uh, thanks!”

 

“No problem,” Sam winked, unwrapping her arms from the blonde. “Come on, let’s go downstairs and I’ll make some coffee before Alex picks you up.”

 

With that, the brunette walked out of the room, leaving Kara speechless at her unexpected comment. Shaking herself out of the daze, she followed. As they made their way downstairs, there was a knock on the door.

 

“Would you mind answering it? I’ll go into the kitchen and start the coffee,” Sam asked as they reached downstairs.

 

“Yeah no problem,” Kara said as she walked the opposite direction of Sam towards the front door.

 

With no regard to ask who it was, she opened the door and started in before her sister could say anything, “Look, I know what you’re going to say and honestly I don’t get why you left me—”

 

Kara stopped talking the moment she realized who was standing in front of her with an amused smile.

 

_Lena Luthor_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're surprised at the ending of this chapter, I was too when I wrote it lol. But c'est la vie. Please comment as I really appreciate the feedback. Thank you again!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has read/commented/gave kudos! I really appreciate it. This chapter and the next should be it in regards to setting up the background stories, maybe. Anyways, enjoy!

Kara’s jaw dropped at the sight of Lena Luthor, who stood with an amused expression on her face. Lena was absolutely gorgeous. Her skin was pale white, but the contrast of her dark raven hair made her seem ethereal. Her light green eyes held an alluring look that she felt herself being drawn to. Her eyes were borderline clear with the lightest shade of green. She had been in the same presence of the Luthor before, but never this close in proximity. Even the pictures she saw online didn’t do her beauty justice. She quickly recovered from being in complete awe of the woman when Lena spoke.

 

“Hi,” Kara found the voice melodic, with the right amount of teasing to be seductive. “Is Sam home?”

 

“Uh, I-I—” The blonde stuttered while the younger Luthor grinned at the obvious nerves.

 

“My apologies, where are my manners?” Lena said effortlessly. “I’m Lena.” She extended out her hand, which Kara noted she didn’t say her last name.  

 

Kara coughed, clearing her throat, gently taking the pale hand delicately in hers, “I’m Kara Dan—” She quickly caught herself before she said her real name. “Zor-El. Kara Zor-El.”

 

As they shook hands, Lena was giving her a thoughtful look which made Kara feel naked under the intense gaze. “Nice to meet you, Kara Zor-El.” She gave Kara the same teasing smirk that almost caused the blonde’s knees to buckle.

 

Just _almost_.

 

“Nice to meet you as well, Lena,” Kara said somewhat coolly as she pulled her hand to rub the back of her neck, a nervous habit she had since a child.

 

“Kara Zor-El, why does that name sound familiar?” Lena said thoughtfully.

 

“Well Zor-El’s some sort of eastern European, I think,” Kara offered with actually no idea if that was true or not. She stood out of the way, gesturing for Lena to enter the house. But there was no attempt to move.

 

“One of my class rosters. You’re in computer programming 303,” The younger Luthor stated upon realization.

 

“At Metropolis University?” Lena nodded. “Yeah, I start this coming term.”

 

“I see,” Lena said pensively, giving Kara a quick once over. “I guess you’ll see me there as I’m the TA for that class.”

 

“Oh really?” Kara lied, knowing exactly what classes she had with Lena since Winn sent her class schedule earlier this past week.

 

“Really. I think I’m a TA for another one of your classes because your name stood out to me,” Lena said nonchalantly, but her comment made Kara blush. Hopefully, the younger Luthor wasn’t paying attention that much. But the blonde couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being regarded closely.

 

“Hey Kara, what’s taking you guys so…” Kara heard Sam say behind her, but stopped talking as soon as she realized who was at the door. “Lena! Hey!”

 

“Arias,” Lena greeted her best friend in a bored tone, but Kara sensed that was normal between them. “I was just meeting your _friend_.” She emphasized the word ‘friend’ and raised a curious eyebrow at Sam, who just gave an uncomfortable smile.

 

“I can see that. Where’s your key to the house? I thought I gave you one?”

 

Lena walked pass Kara answering Sam’s question— _something about forgetting it on the dresser_ —as they made their way to the kitchen, which the blonde quickly picked up on her perfume that smelled like vanilla and coconut with a hint of something else she couldn’t place. She found it intoxicating, sighing dreamily. _I’m so screwed,_ the blonde berated inside her head. Pulling herself together, she quickly checked outside to make sure there wasn’t anything suspicious. The street was clear except for her sister pulling up to the curb in their car. As her sister stepped out, Alex could tell something happened due to Kara’s panicked looked.

 

She walked to the front door with a concerned look, “What’s wrong?”  

 

“I just met Lena Luthor,” Kara said in a hushed tone, Alex’s eyes widened.

 

“You _what?!_ ”

 

“You heard me,” Kara gritted in a low tone. “This would’ve been avoided if you didn’t let me sleep over.”

 

“You wanted to! I wanted to go home, but you insisted that you were going to stay here with Sam to look at baby pictures of Ruby!” Alex said in a somewhat hushed tone.

 

“That’s why I wanted to stay?!” Kara groaned, slapping a hand on her head.

 

“Why? What did you do?” Alex asked flatly.

 

“I—I may have…” Kara stuttered as her sister’s eyes narrowed at her.

 

“Kara…”

 

“ImayhavesleptwithSam,” The blonde confessed in a rush as Alex’s eyes widened at her sister’s confession.

 

“You fucking _what?!_ ” Alex practically yelled, which Kara tried to quiet her sister’s outburst.

 

“I slept with Sam,” Kara said embarrassed. “You know, sex. The thing that involves—”

 

“No don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Alex cut her sister off. “Fucking hell Kara, we’ve only been here a week. One week. And we’re off to a great start. We don’t need a repeat of what happened with Sara.”

 

Kara felt a lump form in her throat. That wasn’t a name she hadn’t heard nor thought of in quite some time. It didn’t upset her as much as it did before, but it still brought up unwanted feelings.

 

“I know, I know! I didn’t expect it to happen. I just woke up _naked_ and _in bed_ with her. I was drunk last night!” The blonde’s eyes narrowed at her sister. “And I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but I was already dating Sara before everything happened!”

 

“It was a conflict of interest! But you were so fucking adamant about protecting your girlfriend when she ended up—,” Alex was going to finish her the sentence, but she paused, tearing her gaze away from Kara to look passed her, where Lena Luthor stood behind her with an indifferent look.

 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I was sent to grab Kara,” Lena said politely. Kara quickly turned around, taking a half step back due to Lena’s closeness. “I didn’t know Sam was having such a full house this morning.”

 

“Hi, I’m Alex Danvers,” Her sister pulled herself together, any sign of annoyance gone. “I’m just here to pick up my roommate.” Alex pointed to Kara.

 

“Oh, no problem. Come on in, Sam’s making coffee,” Lena gestured for Alex to step in, while doing so, she jokingly shoved her sister off balance as she walked through. Either ignoring or not noticing the interaction of the sisters, Lena introduced herself—the same way she did with Kara—to Alex as they directed themselves towards the kitchen.  


Kara composed herself, following them down the hallway. Her head still slightly hurt from the alcohol consumption of the previous night, but the unexpected meeting of Lena Luthor sobered her up enough to do what she was sent here to do. Walking into the kitchen, she saw that Sam was pulling cups out from the cupboard, handing one to each of the women that took a place around the marbled kitchen island.

 

Kara opted to situate herself near Lena, opposite Alex, which was subtly acknowledged. Sam placed a cup in front of the blonde, which she silently thanked. She felt Lena’s eyes boring into her, causing her to look at the younger Luthor with a curious look. “Is there something on my face?” Kara asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

 

“Besides the trail of hickeys on your neck,” Kara immediately covered her neck with her hands, embarrassed. “I feel like I’ve seen you before. I just can’t figure from where.”

 

“Wh-what?” The blonde stuttered, while shooting a pleading look to her sister. “I highly doubt that.”

 

“Yeah!” Alex agreed a little too quickly. “She has the face that always gets mistaken for someone else. It’s happened a bunch of times.”

 

Lena tilted her head at Kara as if there was something more she wanted to say. If she did, she didn’t press the issue and kept it to herself. Alex, on the other hand, pulled out her glasses and handed it to Kara, “I figured you’d need these to see.”

 

“Oh right!” Kara put the glasses on the bridge of her nose, her vision blurring due to their difference in eyesight prescription. She blinked a few times to make it look like her eyes were adjusting. “Thanks Alex.”

 

“No problem,” Alex responded, letting out a quiet sigh of relief.

 

That was a _close_ one. Lena almost recognized Kara from some event they were both at. There were a few events that Kara and Lena were at, but none were intimate enough where Lena was within visual field of the blonde. _Good thinking of Alex for this disguise_ , Kara thought to herself as the three other women surrounding the island started making small talk. _But does wearing glasses hide how I really look?_ She wondered in her head.

 

The kitchen soon became quiet as the women stared at each other, each taking turns pouring the coffee pot around. Kara immediately went for the sugar and creamer Sam brought out, pouring a heaping amount into her cup, which caused Lena to chuckle. Kara shot her a small smile as she stirred her cup, the black liquid turning a hazel color. Kara noticed the silent conversation between the two friends. Sam shook her head, causing Lena to smirk.

 

“So…” Lena started to say.

 

“Luthor,” Sam warned.

 

Lena’s eyes narrowed at her friend while Sam stared back confused with why her friend was shooting invisible daggers in her direction. Alex was the one that spoke up, “Luthor? As in Lena Luthor?”

 

“Yes,” Lena said with a tight smile. Kara noticed how tense she became when her last name was said. The blonde could practically see the Lena’s defenses going up.

 

“I didn’t know you knew Lena Luthor,” Alex said, which Kara knew her sister was acting curious to be polite. “That’s pretty cool.”

 

“Yeah, I really admire all the work you do for the Luthor Foundation, especially when it comes to the Luthor Children’s Hospital,” Kara added, which Lena returned with a genuine smile, mouthing a silent thank you, which the blonde smiled back brightly.

 

“Well, yeah,” Sam shrugged indifferently. “I’ve known this one for a while. As much as she denies our friendship, right Lena?”

 

“Yes yes, we’re friends, a term I don’t use loosely,” Lena brushed her older friend off, ending the conversation of her last name. “But anyways, do tell. How did you guys meet?” She looked between Kara and Sam with a shit eating grinning that had the blonde blushing.

 

“I-uh—” Kara started, but her sister saved her with a response.

 

“I met Sam earlier this week at a bar.”

 

“Really?” Lena questioned, raising an eyebrow at Alex, not entirely believing her.

 

“Yeah, it was during happy hour on Monday, and we just started talking,” Kara was impressed with her sister’s ability to create a false scenario. Well, it wasn’t exactly false. Sam and Alex did meet on Monday afternoon, but not at a bar.

 

Lena hummed and clicked her tongue, directing her attention to the blonde who was happily sipping the coffee. She was mid-sip when the younger Luthor asked, “And how did you meet Sam?”

 

“Sam invited Alex out for drinks last night, which she extended to me. So I decided to tag along,” Kara said nonchalantly, continuing with the coffee that was currently giving her life.

 

“Why wasn’t I invited _Samantha_?” Lena asked playfully to her friend who was shaking her head.

 

“Because, _Lena_ , you haven’t been responding to any of my messages about getting drinks, so I’ve just given up,” Sam said simply as she sipped her coffee.

 

“But if you told me there were going to be other people, I may have joined.”

 

“Bullshit, you wouldn’t have,” Sam called her bluff.

 

“Well now we won’t know, will we?” Lena said in an amused tone and threw a glance at Kara, which didn’t go unnoticed by any of the women present. “What a shame.”

 

 _That_ seemed suggestive.

 

Kara didn’t know how to interpret what just transpired. Lena gave her a smirk that caused butterflies to form in the pit of the blonde’s stomach. She could see in her periphery that Alex was shaking her head while Sam was trying to contain her laughter. _I wonder why Lena would say that. Did she want to sleep with me? Do I want to sleep with her?! I can’t. And I won’t_ , the blonde internally argued with herself.  

 

Lena pulled out her phone, diverting her attention to whatever was on the screen as the other three women looked at each other. _Do not fucking sleep with her_ , Alex mouthed to Kara, which she wholeheartedly agreed. She already slept with Sam, which was not supposed to happen in the first place. She also didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Sara.

 

Well, it wouldn’t be the _same_ situation. Similar in very few ways, but different in most.

 

Kara cleared her throat, “I think it’s time for us to go.” She stood up while Alex nodded. Sam and Lena mirrored their movements.

 

The four of them walked towards the front door with Lena standing a little further behind everyone else. Sam opened the door for the sisters. They walked to step on the other side and turned to face the other two women inside the house.

 

“Thanks for inviting us out last night,” Alex said, stepping to hug the brunette.

 

Sam returned the hug, “Of course! I had fun. Let’s do it again one of these nights.” Pulling back, she turned to Kara, “Don’t forget what we talked about.” Sam pulled the blonde into an unexpected hug.

 

“ _Omph!_ ” Kara coughed as she awkwardly returned the hug, even though her arms were wrapped by the older woman. Sam let her go, smiling at the flustered woman. The blonde returned the smile, “I won’t. Thanks again.”

 

Alex looked between the two of them, trying to decipher what they talked about while Kara rolled her eyes, “Relax Alex, it isn’t anything important.”

 

“Whatever,” Alex muttered. “Nice to meet you Lena,” Alex waved which the raven haired woman returned, and turned to walk towards the car.

 

Kara waited for her sister to be a few steps away before she bid farewell to the younger Luthor, “So I’ll see you next week?” She asked with a hesitant smile.

 

Lena smiled, “Definitely.”

 

“Cool,” Kara’s smile beamed. “I’m going to need help…” She trailed off before nervously looking down, “A lot of it.”

 

Lena genuinely laughed, which Kara realized that was one of her favorite things about the Luthor so far, “That’s fine. I can help. Just sign up with me next week, but do it as soon as you can. My tutoring hours fill up fast and I’m usually fully booked for the term by the end of the first day.”

 

“Got it. I’ll do that,” Kara nodded, mentally noting to remember to do that. “I’ll see you around.”

 

With a wave and a few more words with the two women, Kara walked towards the car idling where her sister was patiently waiting. As soon as she entered the car and buckled up, Alex made no motion to put the car in drive.

 

“Alex?”

 

“So you want to tell me what happened last night after we left you last night over breakfast?” Alex asked simply.

 

“Do I have a choice?” Kara huffed, crossing her arms.

 

“No, you don’t,” Alex said as she put the car in drive. “There’s this place near our apartment that Maggie says is like Noonan’s.”

 

“Whatever,” Kara rolled her eyes as her sister chuckled, driving away from Sam’s house.

 

 _I hope they have pancakes,_ the blonde thought, staring out the window as her sister drove away from the house.

 

\--

 

The week following the whole Kara and Sam hooking up fiasco went by relatively smoothly. All three women settled into their respective apartments while writing updates that the team needed back in National City. They also received some news about Mon-El too.

 

Alex gave Kara a hard time during their breakfast post-drinks with Sam. Alex was able to fill in the missing gaps in the blonde’s memory. Apparently Kara and the older woman started flirting and became more handsy with each other after their fourth shot of tequila. Alex stopped drinking after the second because _someone needed to be the responsible one_. Kara questioned why she stopped drinking since ‘being the responsible one’ had never been a reason why her sister didn’t drink, it was usually the other way around. The blonde had a feeling that if her sister became too intoxicated, she may have made a move on Maggie. As much as she wanted to press the issue on Alex, she let it go since she knew there would be probably be more drunken opportunities.

 

Sam invited the three of them to her house outside of the city a little after midnight. Maggie drove them since Sam took a cab there. The older Danvers revealed to Kara that she didn’t expect them to hook up because the flirting and all that stopped once they arrived at the house. It was the end of girls’ night out and they were all talking, getting to know each other on a more personal level.

 

_“When you insisted that you wanted to stay and look at pictures of Ruby, I assumed that you’d just sleep on the couch. Not in Sam’s bed,” Alex said as she took a bite of her pancake. “Maggie and I didn’t think the night was going that way between you two, so we let you stay.”_

 

Once Alex recollected everything she remembered, Kara was very embarrassed over what happened. She did find Sam attractive, but she, herself, did not foresee them in _that_ situation. Alex promised she wouldn’t say anything to J’onn or anyone back in National City, which she was thankful for. She couldn’t control if Maggie was going to tease her about it though. Her sister did warn that if it were to happen again, she’d have Kara pulled off the case.

 

Kara swore nothing like that would happen with either Sam again or even Lena, which her sister just replied with, _It better not._

 

Alex made offhand remarks about Sam throughout the week, but Kara was used to it. She knew it was her sister’s way to put Kara off of Sam, which was working. When Maggie came by, there were subtle digs about the infamous hookup. Her favorite was, “ _Who knew little Danvers had it in her to sleep with the interim CEO of a billion dollar company_ and _her employer? Props to you_ ,” which resulted in Kara laughing and throwing a couch pillow at the Latina.

 

Though, the couple times Sam dropped by the apartment to answer more questions weren’t awkward. It was friendly, and Kara realized that her relationship with Sam was becoming more and more like her and Alex’s—a sisterly bond that both women welcomed. Weird thing to say about someone you previously hooked up with, but nonetheless their relationship became more sibling than romantic.

 

The women in Metropolis also learned from the team in National City that Mon-El had woken up during the middle of the week. J’onn informed them during a video call that the man that survived the attack was obviously shaken up, but cooperated nonetheless.

 

However, the information that Mon-El gave wasn’t that useful. He was one of the two guards in the back of the van with Lex. He vaguely remembered Lex smirking as soon as they left the prison, which he thought was weird, but he had never met Lex until that day. Then it was a domino of explosions that didn’t directly hit the vehicle, but it was enough to knock it off its course. The next thing he remembered was opening his eyes to see Lex standing next to someone, rubbing his wrists from the handcuffs being removed with flames around him.

 

The problem was that Mon-El was coming in and out of consciousness that he couldn’t make out who it was next to him. He said that it looked like a woman, but the smoke from the flames got to him before he passed out.

 

Kara immediately jumped at the idea that Lillian was the woman that helped Lex escape since she had yet to be located, but Lucy reasoned that they don’t know for sure since Lillian could be out of the country on business for L-Corp for all they knew. So the team was following up with any international airports on either coast to see if Lillian or other possible aliases may have slipped through. But so far, nothing.

 

The sisters also updated the team about what was happening on their side, which they kept to a minimum. Kara did tell J’onn that she had already met Lena, which mildly surprised him, but he agreed with them that it was good thing. _To take the whole formality of it out and it gives you somewhat of an in with her already since she saw you at Miss Arias’s house_ , J’onn reasoned while Alex tried to control her laughter as the blonde kicked her shin under the table.

 

Now it was just a quiet Sunday night with Kara and Alex writing a weekly report on what they learned within the past week. It was the night before Kara’s first day at Metropolis University, which to say she was nervous was an understatement.

 

Kara abruptly stood up from their work desk and started pacing around the living room, while Alex finished typing up information that Sam told her about L-Corp’s current projects and developments. One included a collaboration with Spheerical Industries on a serum that repaired human cells, which interested Alex’s healthcare side, but Sam stated _I don’t know what the hell Jack’s up to, he’s been on this since Lena met him in college, it’s still in the developmental stage. Who knows when it’s going to happen._

 

Once Alex was finished, she sent the report to J’onn while forwarding it to the rest of the team. She closed her laptop and turned in her chair to see her sister walking back and forth.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Alex asked, stopping the blonde in her tracks. “At this rate, you’re going to walk through the floor and end up in the apartment below us, who, by the way, does a live sex show once a week.”

 

“What?!” Kara turned her head to her sister smirking at her. “How do you even know that?!”

 

“Kidding,” Alex shrugged. “But she does something kinky down there. I hear it in the middle of the night some nights.”

 

“I don’t want to know,” Kara muttered as started to pace again.

 

“Seriously, Kara. Do you want to talk about whatever’s on your mind?”

 

The blonde stopped walking and dramatically plopped on the couch. Alex chuckled, getting up from her seat and joining her sister. Wrapping her arm around her clearly distressed younger sister, “What’s up?”

 

Kara nuzzled her face into Alex’s neck and mumbled something that wasn’t quite heard.

 

“Say again?”

 

“I’m just nervous for tomorrow,” Kara repeated again.

 

“Oh Kara,” Alex said affectionately, rubbing her hand up and down her sister’s arm. “You’ll be fine.”

 

“What if I’m not fine and completely blow my cover?” Kara sighed into her sister’s neck.

 

“You won’t,” Alex rolled her eyes.

 

“How do you know? You won’t be there. You’re going to be here with Maggie or at L-Corp with Sam,” Kara pouted.

 

“Because you’re Kara Danvers, you’ve done stuff like this before,” Alex reassured her sister.

 

Kara scooted back, looking at her sister, “Yeah but the last time I _specifically_ was chosen to protect someone, look where that got me.”

 

“Is this about Sara?” Alex asked carefully, knowing that topic was still hard for her sister to discuss.

 

“No…” Kara trailed off.

 

“Kara…” Alex looked at her knowingly.

 

Kara huffed, “Fine maybe.”

 

“Look,” Alex started. “I know what I said to you the morning I picked you up from Sam’s was a bit harsh. It was just a surprise that what happened, happened. But you and I both know that what happened between you and Sara is a completely different situation of you and Lena.”

 

“Is it?” Kara asked, unsure of what her relationship with the raven haired beauty was going to be like.

 

“Obviously,” Alex stated plainly. “You aren’t already dating Lena. She didn’t even know of your existence until that morning—”

 

“I have a feeling she’s at least seen me before,” Kara interjected, but her sister shook her head.

 

“No, I gave you my glasses. It’s a disguise. She let it go,” Alex reassured, even though the blonde had this gut feeling that Lena knew her. Her sister continued, “But back to what I was saying, you aren’t in a committed relationship with Lena. Nor is Lena part of a secret society of trained assassins.”

 

“We don’t know that,” Kara rolled her head on the back of the couch.

 

“You’re right,” Alex agreed. “We don’t. But I’m sure Sam would’ve told us since she’s been keeping tabs on Lena ever since Lex was imprisoned. And Lena has barely left the country within the past five years, only flying out to London and Japan _with_ Sam for L-Corp business.”

 

That information made Kara feel somewhat better, but she was still hesitant over going back to school.

 

“Ugh.”

 

“What?” Alex glanced at her sister, whose eyes were closed.

 

“I just don’t want to go back to school,” Kara groaned, making her sister laugh.

 

Alex ruffled Kara’s hair, “Well, it had to be one of us. Since you’re the one closer to Lena’s age, it made sense for it to be you.”

 

“What!?” Kara exclaimed. “That’s why it’s me?”

 

Alex laughed even more, “God no. I was just kidding.”

 

“You’re so annoying,” Kara rolled her eyes.

 

“Whatever you love me,” Alex stood up. “I’m going to order dinner. Chinese or pizza?”

 

Kara’s mood slightly perked up at the mention of food, “Why not both? I do need food for lunch tomorrow…”

 

“Oh for fucks sake,” Alex chuckled. “Fine, I’ll order both. I’ll ask Maggie if she wants to join us.”

 

The blonde wiggled her eyebrows at her sister, prompting a couch pillow to be thrown at her head. “Ow!”

 

“That’s what you get,” Alex said as she walked into the kitchen.

 

“Make sure you get potstickers!” Kara called after her, sighing back into the couch cushions.

 

She really hoped tomorrow went somewhat well.

 

But with Kara, things never went according to plan.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, seems a like a lot. But it'll all makes sense! Just an fyi, I might not post the next chapter for a week or two, I'm on school break so I'm trying to be away from the computer while I'm visiting home, lol. Please comment :) Thank you again for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it's been almost a month since I last updated. School started and keeping me as busy as ever, but here I am back with my muse/distraction. It was originally longer, but I split it in two. So the next chapter should be up relatively soon.
> 
> This first half-ish deals a lot with a flashback and Kara's thoughts. But it'll all tie in in later chapters.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy! :)

_“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Sara winced as Kara stood up from the table in Kara’s kitchen. It was foreign to hear Kara curse. Words like that were reserved for intimate moments in the bedroom._

_Sara mirrored her girlfriend’s actions, taking a half step towards her, which Kara immediately stepped back. “Oh come on Kara,” the younger Lance sister pleaded. “I had to do what I did.”_

_“Use me? Lie to me? I defended you in front of my sister and friends when all they kept saying was it was a bad idea.”_

_“You don’t think I wanted to tell you?” Sara scoffed. “I fucking couldn’t. And you know damn well that if I did, it would’ve compromised everything.”_

_“You’re right,” Kara’s eyes narrowed at the woman she loved for the past two years. “You did compromise everything. That includes us.”_

_“Wh-what?” Sara stuttered in disbelief. “What do you mean?”_

_“We’re done. I can’t be with someone that’s been lying to me for only god knows how long. Did you even love me?” Kara challenged, her fists clenching._

_“Are you serious?” Sara sarcastically laughed as Kara’s jaw tensed. “You don’t think I love you? After everything we’ve been through?”_

_“How am I supposed to believe you? You lied about knowing that Laurel was alive! You lied about how you knew Nyssa. You lied about why you needed_ me _specifically to protect you. You kept this from me!” Kara yelled, her voice raising._

_Sara dramatically threw her arms in the air, huffing at the words Kara said, “You should fucking believe me,” Kara was about to interject, but Sara held her hands up. “You don’t get to question why I did what I did, and you sure as hell don’t get to question if I ever loved you.”_

_Kara’s gaze softened at the woman in front of her, who was close to tears, she took a step forward, but Sara shook her head, “No, stop. You’re right. We’re done.”_

_There was a tone of finality to Sara’s words. She walked towards her_ now _ex-girlfriend’s door to exit. She stepped around the blonde who remained quiet, but before she turned the door knob to walk out, she said quietly, “I’m sorry. I really am, but you of all people should understand what it’s like to have to protect and be there for your sister, even if you don’t agree with what they’re doing.”_

_With that, Sara opened the apartment door, walking out with the door shutting quietly behind her._

Kara woke up with a gasp, inhaling deeply.

 

Her room was still dark, no hint of sunlight making its appearance yet. She glanced at the clock on her night stand, _1:35_. She didn’t have to be on campus until 8 o’clock.

 

First day and all. 

 

She fell back onto her pillow, pulling the blanket over her face, muffling a groan to not wake up her sister.

 

It was a dream.

 

Well, not exactly a dream.

 

A very vivid memory that happened two years ago.

 

Ever since Alex briefly mentioned Sara last weekend after her one night stand with Sam _and_ meeting with Lena Luthor for the first time, Kara seemed to be thinking a lot about her old girlfriend. 

 

\--

 

Sara Lance was a girl Kara met when she moved back to National City. Their story wasn’t anything spectacular or extravagant. It was… mundane. Ordinary. Cliché, even.

 

A simple girl meets girl.

 

Kara was walking down a busy street, constantly checking her phone to see where she was going since she was still unsure of how to get to headquarters, even with J’onn’s specific instructions. She literally knocked Sara over, spilling her coffee all over the concrete. She profusely apologized for her carelessness which Sara brushed off politely saying that it wasn’t a big deal. She wanted to make it up to her by taking her out to coffee, forgetting about work that day—which she did get an earful from Alex more so than J’onn about responsibilities and not “dicking off” as her sister eloquently put it over some girl.

 

From that day forward, the rest was history.

 

Sara was from Starling City, a girl that didn’t know what she wanted out of life, but she had the resources available to do whatever she wanted. The Lance family was fairly well-known in their hometown. Her father, Quentin, was a high ranking police officer for Starling City’s police department as her mother, Dinah was a well-respected professor at Central City University.

 

Then there was Sara’s older sister, Laurel.

 

One of the very first personal details Sara had told Kara within their first six months of dating was that her sister was murdered a year before they met. Laurel was an assistant district attorney of Starling City. She made a few enemies along the way. The families wanted revenge for putting away their loved ones. These were the people affiliated with the gangs and organized crime of Starling City.

 

It was a rainy night where Sara received a phone call from her father saying that Laurel was found stabbed in an alleyway. But the thing was that when the police and crime scene unit went to the location where Laurel’s body was reported, it wasn’t there. The family was shocked, confused, scared, you name it. They spent months looking for the body, but it was never found. They buried an empty casket and did their best to move on with their lives.  

 

Laurel was presumed dead, even though her body was never found.

 

Prior to the two women meeting, Sara had just come back from a backpacking trip in Asia after her sister passed away—at least that was what Kara was originally told. In actuality, Sara trained with a highly skilled group called the _League of Assassins_. They were well-known if you ran in the martial arts circle, which Kara later found out about through Lucy since she had the opportunity to train with them a couple times thanks to her sensei. But the group was divided into training in martials arts and taking on various missions. Sara started in the training division, but due to her skills and abilities, she was taken under the wing of a woman, Nyssa, to teach her how to become a ruthless killer.

 

When Kara ran into Sara, she returned from somewhere in Asia after walking away from the League. It wasn’t easy for her to do, but she did it because she couldn’t take killing people in cold blood anymore. It was for her own sanity and well-being that made her quit.

 

Though, the League didn’t let her out that easy. Sara sort of… escaped. Nyssa was the one that helped Sara get the League off her back. Sara thought she would’ve been able to close that part of her life, but it followed her back to National City.

 

Until a year and a half into Kara and Sara’s relationship was when things changed.

 

Kara revealed to her girlfriend that she was part of a classified government agency after a year of being together, but it received some backlash from her team—especially from J’onn and Alex. J’onn gave the caveat that Kara could tell Sara if she signed a non-disclosure agreement, which she obliged with no issues.

 

So the one night Sara came over and asked Kara if her team could protect her, Kara said yes without consulting the team. To say Alex was livid would be an understatement. Her sister was _pissed_. The blonde didn’t see what the big deal is, but Alex lectured that it was a conflict of interest of some sorts. Kara didn’t see it that way as she wouldn’t be the one directly protecting Sara, but her girlfriend actually wanted her specifically to protect her while having the team’s help on standby in the event anything happened.

 

Kara never understood what happened or how things happened. She vaguely remembered that Laurel was actually _alive_ which was a shock to Sara when she found out from Nyssa. The older Lance sister faked her own death and stayed off the radar somewhere in Europe, though the location was never disclosed. During that time, Laurel had made some enemies with people _from_ the League of Assassins. Nyssa realized that when the Assassins had a bounty out for Laurel, she had to tell Sara as soon as possible.

 

Sara learned that her sister was still alive, and she asked Kara for protection. Things were quiet in the two months after Sara’s request.   

 

The following months after revealed the cluster fuck of a situation it all was.

 

Nyssa only told Sara because she was _in love_ with her and wanted the younger Lance sister to run away with her.

 

Kara met Nyssa one night while they were out before everything started happening, and Sara introduced them as old friends from high school—which was a total lie when Kara and the rest of the team later went hand-to-hand with the woman and some members of the Assassins because Sara had been kidnapped in an attempt to draw Laurel out.

 

After rescuing Sara, Laurel came to National City to talk to Sara about dismantling the League or at least taking out Malcolm Merlyn—the alleged leader of the group, which the younger sister found Laurel to be out of her damn mind. But they were sisters, regardless of what the other thought, Sara wouldn’t let her sister do it alone.  

 

Sara kept Kara in the dark about Laurel being alive.

 

Kara only found that the older Lance sister was alive when Sara disappeared. Winn tracked her and the team went to Moscow. While there, it turned into a complete mess. Kara learned that Sara had left abruptly to go with her sister to essentially kill Malcolm Merlyn or whoever else got in their way. It was gruesome and each person walked away with minor injuries, but thankfully there weren’t any causalities on their side. Laurel had been badly injured, but she accomplished what she wanted to do by shooting an arrow through the heart of Merlyn. The moment that Assassins saw their leader’s lifeless body limp on the ground, they fled. Kara wanted to go after them, but Alex stopped her.  

 

After that, everyone including the Lance sisters returned back to National City, satisfied that this ‘mission’ they had was over. Alex scolded Kara for a multitude of reasons, the main reason being that _this was an idiotic decision on her part to say yes to her girlfriend without knowing the full story._

 

Once the aftermath of Moscow settled down, the two women broke up. It was too much for Kara to handle and Sara couldn’t do or say anything that would change the blonde’s perception of her. That was that. Kara let her ex-girlfriend walk out of the apartment with no intention of chasing after her.

 

\--

 

Kara smiled sadly in the darkness of her room at that memories of her ex-girlfriend. She still spoke to Sara from time to time, just to see how the other woman was doing. They did go through a lot together, so it was hard for Kara to _not_ care about her. The last she heard was that Sara went back to the League of Assassins with Nyssa and Laurel to change the structure and beliefs of what the League represented. But that was at the beginning of the summer, she hadn’t heard anything from Sara since.

 

Now the blonde knew that this situation with Lena was completely different.

 

For one, the more research she found about the younger Luthor, the more she was sure that Lena had no criminal record or hidden combative skills waiting to be awakened.

 

Two, Kara wasn’t dating Lena to begin with. Sure, she was found herself attracted to the woman, but she knew she had to control how she felt.

 

Lastly, there was something about Lena that Kara made her feel at ease. Regardless of her attraction, she knew that having Lena as a friend would be more than enough to keep her content until they were able to find Lex.

 

Kara just had to remind herself that.

 

\--

 

Kara woke up to banging on her door and Alex’s muffled voice saying, “It’s time to get up. You’re going to be late for your first day.”

 

The blonde let out a groan and glanced at her room clock, reading 7:01. She wasn’t able to fall back asleep until about four with the memories of her old girlfriend invading her mind along with a thousand different possibilities her first day at Metropolis University with Lena would go.

 

“I’m up, I’m up,” Kara muttered as she slowly got up from her bed. She knew she had to be at campus by 8 o’clock, even though her first class wasn’t until 9:30. She wanted to get there early and explore the campus since she made no attempt since they arrived in Metropolis. It was on her to-do list, but she always got distracted or busy with something J’onn wanted her to do.

 

After Kara finished getting ready in less than fifteen minutes, she stepped out into the living room wearing a simple white button down blouse half-tucked into light washed skinny jeans with a pair of brown booties in hand. She saw her sister in the kitchen, cooking.

 

“Are you making me breakfast?” Kara asked as she sat down on the kitchen stool, slipping her shoes on.

 

“If you call eggs and bacon breakfast, then yeah,” Alex replied as she set a plate full of food in front of Kara. “What time’s your first class?”

 

“I don’t have class till 9:30. I just want to get there early to go walk around,” Kara started to eat, eager to fill her hungry stomach.

 

Alex nodded as she cleaned up. Kara was mid-bite when her sister asked, “How’d you sleep last night?”

 

“Not bad,” Kara replied after swallowing the food, knowing if she told her sister how she was up thinking about her ex-girlfriend, it would only add more stress to the day.

 

“Really?” Alex turned with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Yeah,” Kara replied simply as she kept eating.

 

“Alright,” Alex said, not pressing the issue since she didn’t quite believe her sister. “You okay with Maggie taking you to school? I have to go to L-Corp and meet with Sam.”

 

“Yeah, I didn’t realize I needed someone to drop me off,” Kara chuckled.

 

Alex rolled her eyes, “Sorry, I’d give you the car today, but I need it.”

 

“It’s fine,” Kara brushed off, as she finished with her food. “Does that mean you’re going to pick me up?” The blonde teased as she walked to place her empty plate in the sink.

 

“Yeah yeah, your chauffeur will be waiting for you at the end of your last class,” Alex said sarcastically.

 

“Sweet!” Kara said triumphantly as she looked around the kitchen. “There’s no more leftovers from last night huh?”

 

“No, you ate all the food,” Alex said flatly.

 

“Ugh, that means I have to buy food at the school,” Kara groaned dramatically.

 

“It’ll be fine. Good reminder of the good ole university days,” Alex teased.

 

“Don’t remind me,” Kara said as she kissed her sister on the cheek. “Have a good day!”

 

“Have a great day at school honey!” Alex called out as Kara made her way out of her apartment across the hall to Maggie’s.

 

Kara laughed at her sister’s antics as she stepped in front of Maggie’s door, knocking on the door, waiting patiently for the small woman.

 

She heard “One moment!” from the other side of the door. Within a few seconds, the door opened to Maggie. “Hey little Danvers, ready for your first day?” She asked with a cheeky smile.

 

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” Kara replied as Maggie locked her apartment door.

 

“You’ll do fine,” Maggie reassured as the two women made their way down to the parking garage. “Just be yourself.”

 

“How can I be myself when I have to lie to Lena about who I am?” Kara sighed, opening the door for Maggie to walk through.

 

“Well, you technically don’t have to lie to her. You can tell her who you are like an avid potsticker foodie,” Maggie suggested as they made their way to the car.

 

“Yeah I can tell anyone that. The owner of the Chinese restaurant down the street already adds extra potstickers when we order,” Kara huffed. “But what about the personal stuff? It’s not a one-way streak when it comes to opening up to someone.”

 

“Then tell her that stuff. Talk to her about your parents. Talk to her about your goals. Hell talk to her about the multiverse theory you love boring me and Alex about,” Maggie said simply. The two women got into the four door sedan, buckling up.

 

“I mean you have a point…” Kara trailed off and added, realizing what was said, “Hey! You guys said you liked listening about that.”

 

Maggie laughed at the blonde’s sudden outburst, putting the car in reverse, “Kara, I’m half asleep whenever you talk about it. Or you put me half asleep.”

 

Kara playfully shoved the smaller woman as she put the car in drive, “Ugh, I’ll remember that next time. Sorry for wanting to share.” The blonde huffed and crossed her arms like a child.

 

Then they were off to Metropolis University, a fifteen-ish minute drive from their apartment building. It was a couple moments of silence before Maggie spoke again.

 

“You know I’m just joking, as much as you talk to us about the multiverse theory, we listen,” Maggie started. “And honestly Kara, don’t worry too much about what Lena doesn’t know about you. Just tell her what you think she deserves to know. I know trust is a two-way street, so you have to put some trust in her that she’ll trust you.”

 

Kara uncrossed her arms after she heard what Maggie was saying, turning to the woman, “I know. I know that I have to tell her things, but I can’t tell her everything, which sucks. Getting close to her in order to protect her is a lot harder than it sounds.”

 

“I can only imagine,” Maggie hummed. “But seriously just be yourself Kara. Be your dorky self we all know and love.”

 

“Okay okay,” Kara felt a little bit better with the talk with Maggie.

 

The rest of the car ride was filled with easy conversation. Maggie was going to meet up with Alex after she was finished meeting with Sam. Kara prodded about what was going on between her and her sister, which she deflected, saying _Don’t worry about it, little Danvers. Just don’t fall in bed with Lena_. That comment automatically shut Kara up. Maggie laughed at the blonde who started pouting. Neither of them said anything for the rest of the short car ride and let the radio music fill the silence.

 

As soon as they reached Metropolis University, Kara was in awe with how modern the buildings looked. Sure, University of Washington was a nice school, but Metropolis University made her alma mater look ancient. The buildings were made mostly of glass, giving it a sleek look. None were outrageously tall like a city skyscraper, but there were a couple buildings that seemed a bit excessive in height for a university.

 

Maggie pulled up in front of a random building, financial services, turning to Kara, “You’ll do great today, kid. If you embarrass yourself, then you’re doing everything just right. But don’t go too overboard.”

 

Kara stuck her tongue out at the smirk Maggie was giving her as she opened the car door, “Thanks _mom_ , I’ll see you guys later tonight.” She stepped out of the car, shutting the door behind her to Maggie’s laugh.

 

The blonde turned to return the eager wave Maggie was giving her and started to walk towards…

 

“Where the hell am I going?” Kara grumbled to herself as she stopped in her tracks as she looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings.

 

“Miss?” Kara looked to see a blonde girl wearing circle framed glasses standing in front of her. “Are you lost?”

 

The blonde chuckled as she rubbed the back of her neck, “A little bit.”

 

“Do you want some help?” The girl offered. “My name is Eve by the way. Eve Teschmacher.” She extended her hand out.

 

“Hi Eve,” Kara took the girl’s hand in her own. “I’m Kara Zor-El.” It still felt weird to introduce herself with a different last name, but she was slowly getting used to it.

 

“It’s nice to meet you Kara Zor-El,” Eve was a bit too peppy for Kara this early in the morning. “Let me show you to the admissions office to get you a copy of your class schedule and a campus map.”

 

Eve eagerly pulled Kara in some direction, and the only thing the blonde did was follow.

 

 _Oh man, if my morning is already starting out like this, I can’t imagine how the rest of the day is going to go,_ Kara thought as Eve eagerly led her into a building.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! It's a dooozy. Please comment so I know what you guys think or have any questions, and I'll try to respond as best I can :) Thanks again!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy!

There was roughly twenty minutes before her first class—computer engineering 303—which Kara remembered Lena telling her that she was the class TA. She was a bit nervous. The main reason was that she never had a knack for science, that was more Alex’s thing. But c’est la vie, it wasn’t like her other classes were going to be any easier.

 

The schedule consisted of computer engineering 303, engineering statistics, applied cryptography, software development, and high performance computer architecture along with a two-hour lab session for each. Her days were going to be _long_ , starting at 9:00am and ending late in the afternoon around 5:00pm.

 

Lena was a teacher assistant in computer engineering and engineering statistics. As for the other classes, she was a student with Kara—all thanks to Winn emailing her the night before with Lena’s nearly identical schedule aside from the meetings reserved with her thesis advisor. She predicted that she’d be spending most of her time with Lena, but not _this_ much time. On top of that, Kara had to schedule a tutoring session—likely multiple—a week to ensure she stayed on top of the material.

 

After Kara received her schedule from her admissions counselor, she called Winn in a frenzy because she “didn’t know what the hell _applied cryptography_ was” and didn’t understand what kind of classes she had to take. Winn reassured that she’ll be okay and optimistically proposed that she might “get something out of it like how to develop a new phone app for potstickers.”

 

At that comment, Kara ended the call and silently cursed at her predicament.

 

That was before Eve bombarded her again and offered to give a campus tour along with other students who looked just as lost as she did. She was reluctant to accept because she wanted to explore the campus on her own, but after looking at the map, she figured it couldn’t be the worst thing.

 

The campus was _huge_.

 

The tour lasted forty-five minutes, which wasn’t too bad considering the amount of ground they had to cover. She expected it to go longer, but it was brief. It gave Kara a general idea of where each of her classes would be. Eve was nice enough to give her phone number to the students in case they were lost or needed help with anything.

 

Kara walked to the large six story building where her class was being held after grabbing a cup of hot chocolate since coffee wasn’t something she drank—only when she _really_ needed an energy boost. She was naturally an energetic person. The addition of caffeine in her system would be trouble, and her nerves were reaching its tipping point as class started soon.

 

As Kara looked up at the room numbers, she bumped into someone, knocking them over and the papers they carried.

 

“Shoot!” Kara placed her drink—almost spilling—on the ground as she eagerly gathered the papers strewn across the floor.

 

“Kara?” The blonde’s head shot up to the familiar voice that made her heart slightly race. “It’s Kara, right?”

 

 “Oh hey,” Kara said sheepishly, realizing the owner of the voice. “Sorry about that.”

 

Lena chuckled, “Oh god no. Don’t apologize. It was my fault. I was rearranging my stuff and stopped walking in the middle of the hall.”

 

“It was my fault. I was looking for which room I’m supposed to be in,” Kara insisted as she rearranged the collected papers, handing them to Lena as they stood up.

 

“Computer engineering 303 right?” Lena asked as she gratefully took the papers from the blonde, shoving them in her bag.

 

“Heh, yeah,” Kara replied shyly as she pushed up the glasses she was still getting used to the new accessory. “I’m still getting used to the campus since it’s so much bigger than the community college I transferred from.”  

 

“No problem, I completely understand. Walk with me since we’re going to the same class. The lecture hall is on other side of this building on the fourth floor,” Lena offered, which Kara nodded.

 

Lena led the way with Kara following a respectable distance, which prompted the woman to turn around, “Why are you walking so far behind me? Come walk next to me.”

 

The blonde let out a nervous laugh as she picked up her pace to be next to the Luthor, “It’s just… intimidating.”

 

“What’s intimidating? Me?” Lena throwing a glance at Kara as they walked down the hall.

 

“Sort of…” Kara trailed off.

 

“Is it because of my last name?” Lena asked point blanked as they stopped in front of an elevator, pressing the up button as they waited.

 

“What?!” Kara looked at her incredulously. “No, why would you assume that?”

 

“Lex? My brother that killed thousands of people and ruined lives of millions?” Lena rattled in a bored tone as if she had this conversation many times before.

 

“Wh-what? Gosh, no. That’s not why I find you intimidating,” Kara defended as Lena looked at her, somewhat surprised.

 

“Then what?”

 

The elevator arrived. They waited for the people to get off and scurried in.

 

“What is it then?” Lena asked, pressing the number 4 on the panel.

 

“To start, I know you’re not your brother in any way shape or form,” Kara began. “What he did has no reflection of who you are or what your intentions are in the world. I get the feeling that you’re used to people judging you strictly based of your last name?” The blonde looked at Lena who was staring forward intently.

 

“The reason why I find you intimidating,” Kara pressed on. “Is because of everything you’ve accomplished so far. You graduated high school early. You were Summa Cum Laude when you graduated from National City University. You practically are the CEO of L-Corp, but decided that you wanted to get your PhD in engineering with a focus in computer science. On top of that, you’re heavily involved with L-Corp’s pharmaceutical development for child cancers. I swear I’m not a stalker or some weirdo,” She added sheepishly, noting the faintest smile on Lena’s face.

 

Kara finished her little speech as Lena continued to stare forward. The younger Luthor hadn’t said a word in a while, and this elevator ride felt like it was going _so_ slow. The blonde started to fidget, feeling like she may have crossed a line. She was going to start apologizing when Lena spoke.

 

“You’re the only person besides Sam that has ever said that I’m not like my brother,” Lena said softly.

 

Kara was going to respond, but the elevator stopped at their floor. _The dang timing_ , she thought.

 

Lena quickly walked out as Kara tried her best to keep up, but as soon as they entered the lecture hall, the Luthor walked to the front to meet with the middle aged male professor. The blonde sighed as she took an empty seat somewhat towards the front, but not that close to draw the attention of the professor in the event that she was to get called on. There were a few rows between her seat and the podium.

 

Kara felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, pulling it out before the class started in a couple minutes.

 

It was a message from Alex.

 

_How’s it going nerd?_

 

She typed out, _Not great. I’m not sure if I offended Lena._

 

She pressed send and her sister’s response was instantaneous.

 

_What? Offended her?_

 

 _Yeah, I don’t know. Class is about to start. I’ll talk to you about it later_ , Kara pressed send and put her phone away.

 

The man next to Lena called the attention of the students, which quieted the neighboring conversations. The professor’s name was Hank Henshaw. Professor Henshaw was a dark skinned man who looked intimidating, but seemed like the kind of person that was rather calm once you started talking to him

 

“Welcome back from summer break. I hope you’ve all had a chance to rest…” Professor Henshaw introduced, while Kara took notes on what he said.

 

Kara noticed that Lena kept throwing subtle glances at her, which whenever Kara made eye contact, the younger Luthor looked away and brought her attention back to what Professor Henshaw was saying.

 

“Now please break up into groups and discuss a basic algorithm for a website,” Professor Henshaw instructed the class as Kara silently sighed.

 

This was going to be a long day.

 

\--

 

Kara’s brain hurt. Now she couldn’t physically feel her brain hurting, but she had a headache. She rarely had headaches. The blonde had just finished her last class of the day, which thankfully was a lab. A lab that royally kicked her ass since she had no idea what the hell she was doing. Thanks to Winn, who gave her quick coding lessons before they left for Metropolis, she didn’t seem totally stupid. But still, there was a lot Lena and other students had to explain to her once the assignment was given.

 

Kara sat on a nearby picnic table outside of the computer lab building, rubbing her temples in a sad attempt to soothe the ache. Alex texted her that she was running late because of traffic, which Kara was mildly thankful for because she wasn’t mentally prepared yet to deal with the onslaught of questions she knew her sister was going to fire at her.

 

It’s not like there wasn’t much to say to begin with. After computer engineering 303, Lena avoided her for most of the day. She opted to walk with Kara to their classes, but she kept the conversation to a minimum, only going as far to discuss school related matters. But once they were in a lecture hall, Lena was swept into conversation with other students, leaving Kara to sit alone.

 

Kara’s main concern was Lena’s safety. As long as she had a visual on Lena and made sure there were no possible threat near her, that’s all that mattered.

 

Then why was it that every time Lena’s gaze met Kara, the blonde felt her chest tighten. Kara didn’t understand why she was feeling the way she did. She _hardly_ knew Lena. They were acquaintances of acquaintances.

 

Was it protective? Was it romantic? Was it pity?  

 

The more she tried to sift how she felt, the more her head hurt.

 

Kara couldn’t figure it out.

 

And honestly, she didn’t want to know either.

 

“Kara?” The voice of the woman she was thinking about called out her attention.

 

Kara didn’t realize that Lena was in front of her. She was sure she would’ve heard the Luthor’s footsteps approach, but she zoned out. She really needed to stop doing that. Alex had told her more than once that she needed to be more aware of her surroundings. But she typically was. Just not now, after the long day she had. She wanted to crawl in her bed and sleep.

 

“Hmm?” The blonde hummed absentmindedly as she looked at Lena, who appeared slightly uncomfortable. Lena bit her lip. Kara sensed the hesitation.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Kara asked.

 

“Yeah,” Lena hiccupped out. “I just wanted to say…”

 

As she trailed off, Kara waited patiently with no intent to rush or force Lena to say anything.

 

Lena cleared her throat, “I just wanted to say thank you.”

 

“For?” Kara gave a quizzical look at the woman in front of her, who started fidgeting with the strap of her back slung across her shoulder.

 

“You know…”

 

“Uh, I’m not sure I do?”

 

“For what you said earlier,” Lena said quietly.

 

 _Oh, that_.

 

“Oh,” Kara nervously chuckled. “There’s no need to thank me, I’m just being honest.”

 

“I know you are,” Lena gave her an earnest smile. “That’s the thing, I know you’re being honest. Something I’ve rarely experienced in my life.”

 

“I’ll always be honest with you, Lena.”

 

Lie.

 

The thought nagged at the blonde, but she brushed it aside for the time being.

 

“Thank you, I appreciate it. I really do,” Lena replied.

 

“Of course,” Kara said, gesturing to the empty seat next to her. “Join me if you’re not busy?”

 

“I would,” Lena sighed, glancing at her wrist watch—probably one of the few people Kara knew that still used an analog watch instead of some funky technology watch where you could text people. “But I already have a tutoring session in a few minutes.”  

 

“Oh snap!” Kara smacked her head on her forehead. “I forgot to schedule with you. Wait, isn’t it the first day?!”

 

Lena displayed a sheepish smile, “It is the first day. But people sign up and fill my schedule fast especially since I teach other subjects besides computer science.”

 

Kara stared at Lena in such awe. How could someone be able to do this much? Tutor people in different subjects on top of the course load?

 

“How do you do it?” Kara blurted out.

 

“Do what?” Lena asked.

 

“This. All of _this_. You’re in a PhD program _and_ you tutor people. Not only in computer science, but other subjects?” Kara stated matter-of-factly.

 

Lena laughed at the blonde’s apparent shock, “I like helping people. As much as there’s baggage with having Luthor as a last name, I try really hard to break the mold of what my brother did and spend my time teaching people who don’t necessarily understand the material right away.”

 

“You’re amazing,” The comment caused Lena to blush.

 

“Ah, uh…” Lena stammered over what to say next.

 

“You are amazing,” Kara repeated. “I wish I’d get the opportunity to get tutored by you. I know I’d need it.”

 

“You can,” Lena informed. “I don’t have to take on every student that signs up with me. I can make time for you.” Lena added, “If you want.”

 

“Would you really?” Kara asked hopefully.

 

“Yeah,” Lena replied with a cheeky grin. “Just sign up on the school’s tutor website and I’ll accept it.”

 

“Awesome, I appreciate it Lena,” Kara stood up. “Would it be okay to give you a hug?”

 

“Odd thing to ask.”

 

“I’m all about consent,” Lena giggled. “What! I am!”

 

“You have my consent to hug me, Kara,” Lena said as she opened her arms up.

 

Kara hesitated, but shyly stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Lena’s body, sinking her body into her arms.

 

Kara’s heart was pounding through her front chest wall. The close proximity was too much, but yet not enough. Their height differences were more apparent as they were in each other’s space. She wasn’t that much taller than Lena, but enough to rest her chin on top of her forehead. Lena smelled like vanilla and coconut, which soothed Kara’s headache. She felt Lena rub her back softly.

 

She didn’t want to let go, but there was always that thought about what was the appropriate length of time to hug someone. She knew she had to let go, but was reluctant to do so.  

 

Kara was the first to let go, slightly stepping back and avoiding Lena’s gaze. She felt her cheeks warm, but didn’t want it to be too noticeable to the woman standing in front of her.

 

“I’d better go,” Lena said, bringing the blonde’s gaze back to her.

 

“I wouldn’t want you to be late,” Kara said softly.

 

The look between them was held a bit _too_ long to be considered acquaintances, hell even friends don’t look at each like _that_. Kara was first to break the eye contact, briefly shuffling her feet, the ground looking a lot more interesting than what was going on between them.

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lena said, as she started to move to walk towards the library.

 

“I will,” Kara confirmed. “Have a good night, Lena.”

 

“You too, Kara,” Lena waved, smiling as she walked away.

 

There was an odd feeling in Kara’s chest as she watched Lena’s figure retreat. It was… _longing?_ Before she could process what it _was_ , her cell phone vibrated in her back pocket.

 

Seeing that it was Alex, she touched the screen to answer the call.

 

“ _Hey shit head, we’re at the same place Maggie dropped you off,_ ” Kara rolled her eyes at the crude greeting, picking up her bag on top of the table.

 

“I’ll be there in a couple minutes,” The blonde replied, ending the call before her sister could reply.

 

So a couple minutes turned into fifteen. Kara finally found the building that she was dropped off at earlier that morning, but it took a while. She still wasn’t that familiar with the campus, and there may have been a couple instances along the way where a squirrel looked too cute that she couldn’t stop to take a picture. She saw her sister in the car near the curb.

 

Alex rolled down the window, “Hurry the fuck up! I’m hungry.”

 

Kara quickened her pace as she made it to the car. She noticed Maggie sitting in the back seat and gave a small wave. Opening the car door, she slid into the passenger seat and buckled in.

 

“Sorry about that,” Kara said out of breath. “I still don’t know my way around the campus.”

 

“Whatever,” Alex muttered as she put the car in drive. “So where are we eating?”

 

“I’m fine with anything,” Kara answered and Maggie hummed in agreement.

 

“I want Indian food tonight, Sam recommended a place not too far from our building,” Alex said as she pulled away from the curb.

 

The other two women in the car agreed with the food choice. Kara didn’t care what they ate, she was starving. The bagel she had for lunch wasn’t that appetizing to her, but she had to eat something. She knew that she had to go grocery shopping because she loved to have snacks to eat throughout the day. She made a mental note to go grocery shopping soon.

 

“So little Danvers, you planning to tell us about your day?” Maggie asked as Alex snickered next to her.

 

“Not much to say really,” Kara huffed.

 

“Really? Your text said other wise,” Alex glanced at her sister, bringing her eyes back to the road.

 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kara said flatly, turning her body to look out the window.

 

The blonde had a feeling that they were going to ask more questions, but thankfully they didn’t. Alex decided to turn up the volume of the radio ever so slightly, which Maggie quietly hummed to the little bop playing.

 

All Kara wanted right now was food and one moment to not think about Lena Luthor.

 

\--

 

After Kara consumed some food, she was in a better mood and more willing to discuss the events from her day. She started from the beginning—getting overwhelmed with the Metropolis University’s large campus to the overly zealous girl who helped her to bumping into Lena to her little speech about the Luthor to the small victory she had with Lena once they were done with class. On top of that, she vented about how difficult the classes would be.

 

“You’ll be fine,” Maggie said nonchalantly, sipping from the beer she currently in hand. The other two women relaxing into their seat after devouring the amazing yellow curry dish they had.

 

“How would you know? You’re not the one that has to take engineering statistics!” Kara made a face. “I didn’t even realize how much numbers are involved in this stupid major.”

 

“You’re going to learn a new language, welcome to the binary world,” Alex teased, which the blonde groaned.

 

“Ugh, that reminds me. I need to schedule a tutor session with Lena,” Kara taking her phone out from her pocket, pulling up the tutor website Lena mentioned.

 

“A tutor session huh?” Maggie wiggled her eyebrows at Alex, which didn’t go unnoticed by the younger Danvers.

 

“Oh my god, you both need to stop,” Kara muttered.

 

“We have no idea what you’re talking about,” Alex laughed at Maggie’s joking tone.

 

“What days do I get the car?” Kara asked as she scrolled, looking for Lena’s name.

 

“Oh about that,” Alex trailed off, causing Kara to look up from the screen.

 

“I don’t get the car,” Kara stated.

 

“You do, but only on the days I won’t need it.”

 

“But you need it most days huh,” Kara rolled her eyes, bringing her attention back to her phone, picking the Luthor’s name.

 

“Yes, but we’re going to work it out. Either Maggie or I will bring you to school and pick you up,” Alex said confidently and added, “Plus, it takes out the hassle of you having the find parking.”

 

“Fair point,” Kara agreed absentmindedly, flipping back between the calendar app and Lena’s limited availability.

 

“How many times are you going to get tutored by Luthor?” Maggie asked.

 

“Hm?” Kara looked up. “Oh, uh I don’t know. Maybe twice a week? I need _a lot_ of help. I have to talk to Winn sometime this week to give me extra tutoring on the side.”

 

“Is she available twice a week?” Alex peered over her sister’s shoulder, seeing how booked Lena’s schedule.

 

“She said she’d tutor me and if she needed to, say no to other people,” Kara shrugged indifferently while the two women at the table stared at her dumbfounded.

 

“She what now?” Alex asked flatly.

 

“Lena told me that she could make time for me when it came to tutoring,” Kara explained as she scheduled this coming Friday and the following Wednesday as her first couple tutor sessions. “Do you guys think I should just schedule out for the semester already?” Kara asked, looking up from her phone to the two women giving her very different looks.

 

Maggie looked like she wanted to laugh, but had a teasing smirk plastered on her face.

 

Alex, on the other hand, had a scowl on her face.

 

“What?” The blonde asked.

 

“Just schedule out for the semester,” Maggie chuckled, shaking her head.

 

“Okay…” Kara looked at the two women, unsure what was going on.

 

After successfully scheduling her tutor sessions with Lena and filling out the required information, she saw the scowl still stuck on her sister’s face.

 

“What’s your problem Alex?” Kara asked, raising an eyebrow and putting her phone in her jacket pocket.

 

“I don’t have a problem,” Alex replied coolly— _too_ coolly for Kara’s taste.

 

“Load of barnacles,” Maggie laughed at Kara’s choice of words, her inherent need to not use swear words unless she was _really_ pissed off. “Seriously, what’s your problem?”

 

“You need to be careful,” Alex said evenly, signaling to the server to bring over their bill.

 

“Of what?” Kara raised an eyebrow. Alex didn’t reply right away. The server walked by to hand over the… _thing_ a person puts their payment. “Huh, what’s that called?” Kara questioned.

 

The server stopped, staring at the blonde, while the other two women at the table looked at her confused, “Pardon ma’am?”

 

“That,” Kara pointed at the little black folder the female server held in her hand. “What’s it called?”

 

“This?” Diana—Kara read the pinned name tag on her uniform—asked. Kara nodded. “Uh… I actually don’t know.” Diana smiled nervously.

 

Kara smiled at the girl’s slight embarrassment, “Don’t worry about it. It just crossed my mind. I used to work at a restaurant, but never knew what that was called.”

 

“I guess I never really thought about it,” Diana returned the smile.

 

Alex cleared her throat, ending the friendly exchange between the two, “Are you two done? Or can I pay the bill please?” Kara sensed her sister’s voice dripping with sarcasm. Alex practically tossed her credit card to Diana, and she informed the table that she’d be right back.

 

“Gosh, Alex. Can you just be polite? It was just a conversation,” Kara glared at her sister from across the table while Maggie stayed quiet, knowing that whatever was happening was between the sisters and it was in her best interest that she stay out of it.

 

“I am being polite. I just want to get the bill and go home,” Alex said flatly.

 

“Seriously? Your whole mood changed once I said that Lena would change her schedule for me,” Kara threw a look over at Maggie, silently asking to back her up.

 

“I’m not getting involved,” Maggie shrugged. “I’m going to go anywhere that’s not here. I’ll be outside.” With that, the Latina stood up from the table and walked towards the restaurant exit.

 

“Way to go,” Alex said bitterly, pouting.

 

“Can you just tell me what’s wrong?” Kara pleaded with her sister.

 

Alex sighed, “Fine. Nothing’s wrong. It’s just… Kara, you have to be _really_ careful. You seriously can’t date Lena. This is literally a matter of life and—”

 

“You think I don’t know this?” Kara groaned. “I know it’s a matter of life and death. I would _never_ put myself in position that could jeopardize Lena’s safety.”

 

“I know you know this. But Kara, it’s _you_. You’re so honest and pure and everything about you makes people fall in love with you. I’ve seen it so many times with anyone that’s been remotely in your orbit,” Alex explained as Diana silently brought the _thing_ to the table, giving the sisters a small grateful smile, which was returned. “Just please, be careful. For both of your sakes. I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”

 

“Alex, no one is going to get hurt. We’re here to protect Lena and Sam, which is what we’re going to do. Let me handle Lena. It’ll be strictly platonic,” Kara said positively, but the woman seated across the table didn’t look entirely convinced.

 

“If you say so…” Alex replied unsurely, opening the little folder to sign the bill.

 

“I do, so seriously. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” Kara said more for her benefit than her sister’s. The blonde still wasn’t entirely sure how to approach the situation. She knew going into this that a lot of things had to be factored in, but her only focus right now was to protect Lena.

 

“Okay, okay,” Alex shut the book, looking up to meet her sister’s gaze. “Let’s go. I seriously am tired. It was such a long day.”

 

Kara nodded. The two women checked to make sure neither of them or Maggie left anything at the table. Once they made their way out of the restaurant, they saw Maggie slowly pacing back and forth, finishing up a phone call.

 

“Hey, all good?” Maggie asked as she walked up to the sisters.

 

“Yes,” Both sisters replied at the same time, smiling at each other.

 

“Good, I don’t think I would’ve been able to take an awkward car ride home if the issue didn’t get resolved,” Maggie teased, causing all of them to laugh.

 

The three women walked towards Alex’s car—which Maggie relentlessly teased that she parked way _too_ far when there was a spot right in front of the restaurant—a couple blocks down.

 

“It wasn’t there when we arrived!” Alex defended while Maggie laughed.

 

The two women continued to bicker as Kara followed closely behind. She felt her phone vibrate in her coat pocket, pulling it out, she noticed a text from an unfamiliar number. Squinting at the phone before—

 

“Watch it!” Kara bumped into Maggie, not noticing that they made it to the car. “Jeez, little Danvers, I know you tall people can’t see us little people.”

 

“I didn’t realize we were here,” Kara said sheepishly. “I was looking at my phone.”

 

“Well look up next time dork,” Maggie teased, stepping inside the car. “Shot gun!”

 

Kara rolled her eyes at the woman, opening the door to the backseat. The two women in front started a conversation as she settled in the back. She looked back down at the phone and her eyes widened, smiling at the message on the screen.

 

_Hey, it’s Lena! I saw you that you scheduled, so I thought I’d text you so you have my number if you need help with anything. Have a good night Kara xo_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! see ya in the next chapter :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy :)

The rest of Kara’s first week at school went by somewhat smoothly, depending on what the average person defined as _smooth_.

 

Kara became more familiar with the university campus, but that didn’t mean she still didn’t get lost when she arrived in the mornings. Thankfully, Lena was kind enough to walk with her to most of their classes, only leaving her when she had a meeting or a tutoring session. The Luthor pointed out less crowded places in some of the buildings where she studied if it wasn’t in the library.

 

Kara had also made a couple friends—Imra Ardeen and Querl Dox.

 

Imra Ardeen was an international student from the United Kingdom who the blonde found to be extremely polite and always wanting to help her if she didn’t understand what the teacher said. Kara choosing the seat next to Imra during one of their labs was probably one of the better decisions she had made this week. They both got along pretty well, and Imra even invited Kara to get drinks with her and her boyfriend Lars sometime during the term.

 

Querl Dox was an eccentric man that reminded Kara a lot of Winn. He was very intellectual and knew what he was talking about. He had even developed a program that could apparently calculate the risks of any possible situation, but it was still in the process of being approved due to private security manners—something he wasn’t exactly supposed to share with Kara. She made a mental note about looking into it to see if there was anything she could do.

 

What made the week rough was the courses she was forced against her will to take since Lena Luthor was basically a prodigy and excelled in _literally_ anything she put effort into. She didn’t realize how much coding and all that stuff played a role in the everyday technology humans use. She also did not realize the kind of courses went into computer science. Her high performance computer architecture course had so many things happening all at once, she felt like her brain was going to explode.

 

The only good part about all of the classes and labs Kara had was that she spent time with Lena and learned about her on a more personal level than what Sam or the tabloids said.

 

Kara didn’t learn the intimate details of what made Lena who she was, but she did learn minor things. One being that Lena loves coffee. She took her coffee black unlike Kara who—when she did drink coffee—poured as much sugar and cream as she could fit into the cup. Another was that the younger Luthor loved helping people whether it be in class or it was while they walked around campus. Lena was so open and friendly with people that you’d never think that her brother was Lex Luthor.

 

Kara found that most people at the university didn’t see Lena like her brother. The blonde thought that with everything she did, she built a reputation in this community where they didn’t think of her how the tabloids did. Though, the two had yet to be outside of the little bubble of school, so being in public with Lena might have a different response.

 

It was Friday. Kara’s first tutor session with Lena was scheduled after their last class of the day, which was a lab—thankfully. The blonde was mentally drained. She didn’t think she’d have to try _this_ hard in a non-existent degree, but she had to put up a façade for Lena.

 

Kara was currently in the computer lab where her last class was—thirty or so minutes before it started. It was her and another student that she hadn’t had the chance to introduce herself to yet. She would, but the current predicament stared at her as she sat in front of a computer screen with a terminal window open, trying to figure out how to build a firewall. She spoke to Winn on Wednesday night, which turned out to be a three-hour tutor session on the basics of coding along with office gossip about how James was being a dick to Lucy. The blonde still didn’t know what she was doing, but she opened the required textbooks—even though she didn’t pay for it, she didn’t think a 150-page paperback book was worth $200—and looked for some form of guidance.

 

It didn’t help.

 

Kara sighed at the screen in front of her loud enough to prompt the girl from across the room to chuckle.

 

“Having trouble?” The girl asked.

 

Kara nervously chuckled, “What gave me away?”

 

“Not sure,” The girl started. “Maybe that ever since I walked in ten minutes ago, you haven’t touched the keyboard. And you have this frustrated look on your face.” Kara heard the slight teasing in her voice.

 

“Okay you’ve made your point,” The blonde relented, turning her head in the direction of the voice to a brunette with a slight smirk on her face. “I’m Kara, Kara Zor-El.” It was a lot easier to introduce herself with her fake last name than the beginning of the week.

 

The brunette made eye contact with her and smiled, “Hi Kara. I’m Lana Lang.” She stood up and walked across the room, sitting in one of the empty seats next to the blonde.  “Let’s see what you’re trying to do.”

 

Kara slightly pushed her chair back to give Lana enough room to see what was on her screen. She hoped that what was displayed proved that she somewhat knew what she was doing.

 

“Are you trying to plant a virus in this computer?” Lana asked, using the mouse to scroll up and down the terminal window.

 

“No?” Kara leaned forward a little to see what Lana meant. “I’m trying to build a firewall?”

 

Lana laughed, “I think you’re actually trying to put a virus in the computer.”

 

“What? How?”

 

“See these lines right here,” Lana pointed on the screen, which Kara nodded at the combination of letters and symbols she still wasn’t sure what they meant. “They’re arranged in a way that’ll plant a virus into the hard drive, but can’t be cleaned out so to speak because once it’s in, it’ll corrupt all data,” She explained.

 

“So I was doing the opposite of what I wanted to?” Kara questioned, thinking about her conversation with Winn on where she might’ve went wrong.

 

“Essentially yes, but with how you’ve typed it out, you may have already planted the virus, rendering this computer useless,” Lana said. “But, once Lena gets here, ask her to look at it. She could probably take it out.” Her tone was slightly bitter, but it could only be detected if someone was _really_ paying attention.

 

“I think I’ll do that,” Kara said sheepishly. “I don’t want to exactly pay for a new computer.”

 

“Eh, it’s the risk with computer labs,” Lana shrugged indifferently. “The university knows the outcomes of having computer engineers tampering with their stuff.”

 

“Why can’t you take the virus out?” Kara prodded, wondering why she couldn’t do it rather than the blonde having to ask Lena.

 

“Uh,” Lana leaned back, giving Kara an uncomfortable smile. “The virus you _may_ have planted looks a little too advanced and out of my depth.” The blonde’s eyes widened.

 

“What?!”

 

“Yeah…” Lana trailed off. “It’s funny though because here you are trying to build a firewall, but then end up planting a serious virus that I’ve never seen.” Kara noticed that Lana looked mildly impressed.

 

“Oh, well thanks,” Kara rubbed the back of her neck, unsure how she of _all_ people did this.

 

“No problem,” Lana responded simply, studying the screen.

 

The classroom door opened, and the two women looked to see who arrived. It was Lena. She met Kara’s gaze and slightly tilted her head, looking between the girls. After a brief moment, the Luthor broke the eye contact and walked towards the shelves lined against the wall.

 

“Well, I’m going to go back to my side of the room,” Lana rolled her eyes at _whatever_ just happened. “Don’t forget to ask Lena.” With that, Lana stood up and walked back to the computer where her stuff was.

 

Scratching her head at the abruptness of Lana’s departure, Kara brought her gaze back to the screen. She re-read the lines of code to see where it was wrong. It was odd because she did exactly what Winn said. She made a note to ask him the next time they spoke.

 

Kara felt Lena’s presence before she actually sat down. She swiveled on her chair to a somewhat irritated Lena turning on the computer next to hers.

 

“Hey?” The blonde greeted, unsure of what was bothering Lena. Kara saw her in their morning lecture and there didn’t seem to be a problem. Now she looked like someone stepped on her dog. Lena didn’t respond, but instead sat down on the chair, typing her log-in credentials.

 

“Lena?”

 

“Hmm?” The raven haired woman barely spared a glance in Kara’s direction as she set up what was needed for class.

 

“Is everything okay?” The hesitation was evident in Kara’s voice.

 

“Peachy,” Lena said in a clipped tone.

 

“Seriously? You seem… annoyed?” Kara trailed off.

 

Lena turned the chair to face the blonde, leaning back with legs crossed—an intimidating move a _CEO_ would make, “Not annoyed.”

 

“Then what?” Kara pressed, knowing that _something_ was bugging her.

 

“Why don’t you ask Lana for help?” Lena replied sarcastically, causing the blonde to let out an obnoxious laugh.

 

The Luthor’s eyes narrowed, which Kara noticed. She composed herself, but was still laughing internally, “Why would I do that?” Kara teased, sensing the smallest bit of jealousy radiating off of the woman.

 

“You two seem awfully close,” Lena noted.

 

“How? I literally just met her no more than ten minutes before you walked in,” Kara rolled her eyes at what Lena’s insinuation.

 

Kara could handle this one of two ways. One, she goes ahead and does what Lena says by _asking Lana for help_. Or two, she sits next to the apparent fuming Luthor and wait for _whatever_ she was feeling to subside.

 

“You guys seemed close,” Lena shrugged indifferently, looking away.

 

Kara chose the latter.

 

“Okay, well we’re not. I’ll tell you again that I just met her today. I have no intention of asking her for help in anything because apparently I planted a virus on this computer and she couldn’t figure out how to take it out. She told me—”

 

“You what?” Lena interrupted the blonde’s explanation, peering over to her screen to see.

 

“I coded a virus on the computer when I was actually trying to create a firewall. Lana came over to see what I was struggling with, but she couldn’t reverse it to take the virus out. She said to ask you to help with it,” Kara explained.

 

There was a small pause in their conversation as Lena looked over the terminal window displayed on Kara’s screen. The blonde didn’t notice but more people in their class. She saw that Imra and Querl walked in and gave them a friendly wave.

 

“Jesus Kara, how the hell did you make this?” Lena asked as she pulled Kara’s keyboard towards her, beginning to type.

 

“I’m not sure,” Kara chuckled nervously. “I meant for a firewall, but I don’t know what happened.”

 

“You did quite the opposite,” Lena replied as she continued to type. “The code you put in is quite unconventional, which makes it hard to deconstruct once it’s entered. Give me a couple moments, I should be able to…Ah ha!” Lena triumphantly pressed enter, which automatically shut the computer off. “Wait what the hell?”

 

“What happened?” Kara wondered as Lena stared confusedly and a bit shocked.

 

“I thought I was able to clean out the virus, but it ended up shutting the computer off,” Lena bit her lip as she pressed the computer’s power button on.

 

The computer screen lit up as it normally would. The two waited patiently for the computer to reboot. Once the log-in screen appeared, Kara quickly typed in her credentials. After what felt like five hours—but it was really only a minute—the desktop appeared. Lena opened up the terminal window.

 

“What are you looking for?” Kara asked as Lena’s eyes moved side to side, analyzing the code.

 

“I’m searching for what I typed in and to see if what you originally put was deleted,” Lena squinted her eyes. “Okay, see there?” She pointed with the mouse to a bunch of letters and symbols that looked fine. “This set of numbers was where your code was entered, but it’s not there anymore. My code was able to reverse it.”

 

Kara acted like she knew what Lena was talking about, nodding in false agreement, “Cool, I apologize for that. I must’ve typed it wrong.”

 

“No, it’s alright,” Lena waved off the apology. “It’s actually impressive. I’m surprised you knew how to do that.”

 

“Ha, I surprised myself,” Kara replied cheekily, reclining into the chair, Lena scooting back to her computer with a small grin. “You sure you’re alright?”

 

“Yes yes,” Lena said dismissively. “Oh by the way,” She trailed off, looking at her planner. “I have to meet with Professor Henshaw after class to discuss next week’s lesson plan. I may be a little late.”

 

“No problem, I’ll just meet you in the library?” Kara offered, thinking where the library was in relation to the building they were in.

 

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Lena agreed as the lab professor walked in.

 

“Please sign in to your emails and download the file. Begin working on installing the program…” The lab professor began explaining.

 

As the instructions were being given, Kara discretely pulled out her phone to send a text to Alex.

 

_I know you’re with Sam today, please ask her who Lana Lang is_.

 

Kara barely pressed send and the reply was instantaneous.

 

_Gotcha._

 

Another message followed.

 

_I’m on the computer before you ask how I replied so fast_.

 

Kara smiled at her phone, which Lena cleared her throat, causing the blonde to sheepishly smile at the raised eyebrow currently being thrown at her. She put her phone back in her bag and realized the professor stopped speaking.

 

“So Lena, what’re we doing?” The younger Luthor playfully rolled her eyes at the blonde, shaking her head.

 

\--

 

Kara felt her phone vibrating and pulled it out to see her sister’s face pop up, taking a seat at one of the benches in front of the library, “Hello Alexandra.”

 

Alex scoffed her sister’s greeting, “ _Hi shit head._ ”

 

“To what do I owe this pleasure of a phone call rather than a message?” Kara mockingly asked, crossing her legs.

 

“ _Please shut up_ ,” Alex replied. “ _I’m calling because I know you’re done with class, so I thought I’d check in._ ”

 

“I’m so flattered that you took time out of your day to call me,” Kara chuckled as she saw people dismantling tables near the library. It was almost 5 o’clock. The lab professor kept the first meeting short and simple, so they finished about an hour early. Some were done faster than others—Kara being one of the slow ones, but Lena stayed around to help.

 

“ _Anyways_ ,” Alex ignored the comment. “ _I asked Sam about a Lana Lang_.”

 

“And?” Kara waited for her sister’s reply.

 

“ _The only thing Sam knows about a Lana Lang is that she used to date Lena_ ,” Alex revealed, causing Kara’s jaw to slightly drop.

 

“What?!”

 

“ _Yeah, apparently Lana and Lena—first of all, their names are way too similar which is_ weird _, but that’s besides the point—dated about a year ago. But it wasn’t anything serious. Sam mentioned they were probably together for no more than 6 months,_ ” Alex explained.

 

“Hmm…” Was Kara’s only response.

 

“ _What happened?_ ” Alex asked curtly. The blonde imagined her sister’s eyes rolling dramatically.

 

“Nothing happened,” Which was true. Nothing did happen between them.

 

“ _Then why are you asking about Lana Lang? Someone that Lena used to_ date _,_ ” Alex emphasized the last part of her sentence.

 

“It’s just…” Kara paused, thinking of how to explain to her sister what happened. “It’s just, I was sort of in a close position with Lana when Lena walked in. Then Lena gave me the cold shoulder for _being_ remotely near Lana.”

 

“ _Huh,”_ Alex’s tone seemed confused. “ _That sort of makes sense._ ”

 

“Why?”

 

“ _Sam said that Lena was the one that broke up with Lana because Lana felt insecure,_ ” Alex stated matter-of-factly. “ _I think it had more to do with Lena’s intelligence and her position as a CEO at a multi-billion-dollar company_.”

 

Kara hummed as her sister continued talking about her day, which was no more eventful than hers. The blonde’s mind was thinking about something, or _someone_. She had an inkling that Lena fancied women, but she didn’t want to make any assumptions. Even _if_ Kara thought Lena dated women, she didn’t think Lana would’ve been her type. There was something about Lana that Kara didn’t trust, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

 

“ _Kara? You there?_ ” Alex’s voice pulled Kara out of her thoughts.

 

“Oh yeah, sorry. I was listening,” Kara replied absentmindedly.

 

“ _What was the last thing I said?_ ” Alex challenged her sister.

 

“You said that all you did today was distract Sam from working while Maggie was off doing whatever since she wasn’t needed,” As much as her sister thought she didn’t listen, Kara was paying attention.

 

 A moment passed and her sister didn’t say anything. Kara briefly looked at her phone to see if the call got disconnected, but it was still there. “Alex?” Kara uncrossed and crossed her legs again, slightly getting impatient.

 

“I’m here. Just a bit surprised you heard all of that,” Alex muttered, causing Kara to laugh.

 

“Whatever,” Kara checked the time on her watch. It was almost 5:30. “Anyways I gotta go. I have my tutoring session with Lena.”

 

“Oh yeah! Okay. I forgot about that. Just text me when you guys are about done. Either Maggie or I will pick you up,” Alex informed, as Kara stood up from where she sat.

 

“Yeah yeah. Will do. Talk to you later.”

 

Alex said her goodbyes and the call ended. Kara walked into the library and saw Eve Teschmacher waving excitedly behind the front desk.

 

“Hey Kara!” Eve greeted a bit loudly for a library, but they were on the first floor with a bunch of other people.

 

“Hi Eve,” Kara walked up to the excited blonde. “How’s it going?”

 

“It’s going okay, things are pretty slow today. But it is only the first week of school. I can’t expect much,” Eve shrugged. “What’re you doing here?”

 

“I’m getting tutored in a bit,” Kara said.

 

“Lena Luthor?” An amused look crossed her face.

 

“Heh, yeah. I’m struggling a bit with some of my classes,” Kara explained, causing Eve to giggle.

 

“You’ll be fine,” Eve reassured. “Lena’s a really great tutor.”

 

“So I’ve heard,” Kara said, a slight lull in their conversation almost making her uncomfortable.

 

“Anyways, what’re you doing tonight?” Eve asked, filling the conversation before it became awkward.

 

Kara bit her lip, thinking of what she had planned with Alex, but was drawing a blank, “Not sure.”

 

“Well if you’re free, there’s a party tonight at the Kappa Delta house,” Eve offered, making Kara slightly uncomfortable.

 

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to socialize. It had more to do with dealing with drunk college students who were still in their early twenties. Unlike Kara who was in her late-ish twenties, and genuinely had no desire to do keg stands and play beer pong—which she would demolish everyone.

 

“I don’t think that’s really my thing,” Kara politely declined.

 

“No worries,” Eve smiled. “I thought I’d extend the invitation. If you change your mind, you have my number.”

 

“Thanks. I better get going though. I don’t want to be late,” Kara said, looking around the library to see where they were supposed. “Do you happen to know where I’m supposed to go? I didn’t exactly discuss where with Lena…” Kara trailed off.

 

“For which subject? Depending on the subject, the location varies,” Eve pulled out a library map. Kara noticed that the library was _also_ huge based on the different sections laid out in the floor plan.

 

“Computer engineering,” Kara replied with the major instead of the subject since she didn’t know what she wanted to tackle yet. The amount of work assigned seemed endless.

 

“Oh!” Eve clapped her hands together. “Go around that corner,” The blonde girl pointed behind Kara. “And there’s a computer lab on the left. It says ‘computer lab’ on the wall. It should be empty. It’s reserved for Lena when she tutors. If there’s anyone in there, just tell them that Lena’s tutoring.”

 

“Uh okay…” Kara trailed off in a bit of disbelief, looking in the direction of a walkway. “Thanks for all your help.”

 

“Of course that’s why I’m here,” Eve genuinely smiled, which the blonde mirrored.

 

“See ya around,” Kara bid her farewell, turning to walk to the computer lab.

 

\--

 

Lena was late.

 

Not that Kara kept track.

 

It was only a few minutes after their arranged time—seven minutes to be exact.

 

But again, she wasn’t keeping track.

 

Kara practiced typing while waiting for the Luthor since she felt that she typed slow. So pulling up a typing website that measured how many words typed per minute seemed a good way to kill time.

 

By the time Lena arrived, Kara gave up typing and was able to clock out the amount of words per minute she could type at 96, which was a new personal record.

 

“I am so sorry for being late,” Lena sighed exasperatedly as she walked into the room. “The meeting with Professor Henshaw went late and he wanted to discuss my thesis.”

 

Kara waved Lena’s apology, “Don’t worry about it. I was just waiting and killing time by practicing my typing skills.”  

 

“I’ve seen you type. You type just fine,” Lena complimented her, taking the seat next to her.

 

“Have you seen yourself type!?” Kara retorted. “Your fingers fly over the keyboard!”

 

Lena rolled her eyes, chuckling, “You have to understand that I’ve literally been typing for as long as I could remember. I also played the piano since as child, so I’m used to it.” The Luthor shrugged.

 

“Psh, still,” Kara didn’t know what else to say. She pulled out her notebook to see what assignments she still needed to do. Reading over her weekly to-do list, she realized she had _quite_ a list.

 

“So what’re we working on?” Kara felt Lena peer over shoulder, which the blonde quickly shut, slightly embarrassed. “What?” Lena pulled back to look at Kara, which she avoided her gaze.

 

“Heh, nothing,” Kara said nervously, pushing up her glasses.

 

“Uh okay…” Lena gave Kara a confused look. “So what’re we working on?” She repeated the question with slight hesitation in her voice.

 

Kara relented, feeling slightly like a jerk. She re-opened her notebook to her list and placed it on the table. Lena gave her another puzzled look and leaned forward, eyes quickly scanning the page.

 

“Did you want to work on all of this?”

 

“Can we…?” Kara trailed off, as Lena brought her attention to the blonde.

 

“Ah, hm, well…” Lena started as she took another look at Kara’s to-do list.

 

The list wasn’t long, per say. There were only five things to do. Five _lengthy_ assignments, in which Kara knew needed a lot of time to be put into it. The blonde was also sure that Lena how time consuming these assignments were going to be.

 

“I don’t think we can finish all of them in the two hour block you scheduled with me,” Lena said. “But, I do think that I would be able to help you start each one so that you have a general idea of what you have to do?” Lena offered.

 

Kara nodded in relief, “Yeah that sounds great to me. I’ll take any help I can get.”

 

“I don’t understand how you need help with this when you created an insane virus in lab earlier,” Lena teased, as she booted up the computer.

 

“That was a fluke!” Kara said truthfully, mirroring Lena’s actions. “And you know it!”

 

“Do I though?” Lena raised an eyebrow. “I feel like I don’t know much about you.”

 

“What’s there to know? I’m Kara Zor-El. I transferred from a community college. I don’t drink coffee much,” Kara rattled off, unsure of where this conversation was going.

 

“I know you don’t drink coffee that much, which is still unbelievable to me,” Lena rolled her eyes at the thought. “But I don’t even know from what community college. Or where you’re from. You know a lot more about me. You can just search my name up on the web and you’ll find my accurate, yet inaccurate biography.”

 

Kara hesitated in answering where she came from, but recovered before Lena noticed, “I transferred from National City.” It wasn’t a _total_ lie. She _was_ from there.

 

“What?” Lena looked mildly surprised. “You’re from the west coast?”

 

Kara nodded, deciding not to say too much.

 

“What brings you out on the other side of the country?” Lena asked, typing in her log-in credentials.

 

“Change of pace really,” Kara said nonchalantly, as she also logged into her computer.

 

“Hmm,” Lena clicked her tongue, prompting Kara to look at her.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing, you’re just interesting,” Lena said casually.

 

“Meaning…?” Kara gave a quizzical look.

 

“I don’t get why someone would give up warmth 365 days out of the year for Metropolis. It snows here,” Lena stated matter-of-factly.

 

“True…” Kara agreed. “But I like the cold, which is weird to hear. I lived in Seattle for a bit and I sort of fell in love with the weather.” Now that was a true Kara fact.

 

“Well, that makes two of us. I love the cold. My favorite thing is to read a book when it’s either raining or snowing and curl up under a blanket next to a window,” Lena said thoughtfully, which Kara smiled at the sentiment.

 

“Those really are the best.”

 

Shaking herself out of the moment, Lena changed the topic back to school, “Want to start on what we did today in lab? Since it’s fresh in our minds?”

 

“Sure, that makes sense,” Kara said, pulling up a terminal window to get started.

 

“Let’s use a practice terminal window for this assignment,” Lena said before Kara could type anything.

 

“What!? We can do that??” Kara’s eyes widened at that piece of information. It honestly would’ve saved her so much trouble.

 

“Yes, you can,” Lena informed her, pulling up said thing. “It makes a little easier on the computer that you’re using. Granted, today was the first class we actually had to code something.”

 

“Ugh, if I knew that, I wouldn’t have felt that bad over what I did earlier!” Kara sighed. “But knowing my luck, I’ll still find a way to plant a virus on the computer.” She teased, causing Lena to giggle.

 

“Not on my watch, Zor-El,” Lena said with a teasing look in her eyes. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

 

\--

 

“So if you bring theta over to this side of the equation, it’ll cancel out to get the right answer,” Lena instructed as she wrote on the clear white board while Kara took notes.

 

_Engineering statistics could kiss my ass_ , Kara thought to herself as Lena continued to explain the method used.

 

It was almost the end of their first tutoring session. It was nearing 8 o’clock.

 

It was rough.

 

But they were productive.

 

Kara experienced Lena in a different light. The young Luthor did not let Kara get sidetracked at any point. She demanded Kara’s attention, which the blonde was more than willing to give. The tutoring side of Lena made Kara want to try hard to learn everything that she was willing to teach.

 

A phone rang on the table, stopping Lena from continuing with what she was saying. It was Kara’s. While Lena gave Kara a raised eyebrow, the blonde gave a sheepish smile and looked at who was calling her.

 

Maggie’s name flashed on the screen, which mildly concerned Kara since Maggie _rarely_ ever called.

 

Lena noticed Kara’s worried look and politely said, “Answer it.”

 

“Okay, I’ll step out of the room. Be right back,” Kara said, trying to control her thoughts from spiraling out of her control. She picked up her phone and quickly walked outside, leaning against the wall. Taking a deep breath, she answered the call, “Maggie?”

 

“Hey, Kara!” Maggie sounded winded and out of breath.

 

“What’s going on?” Kara asked, as she kept her voice steady.  

 

“So something happened with Alex,” Maggie started off.

 

“What!?” Kara pushed herself off the wall. “What happened?!”

 

“She got into a minor fender bender coming back to the apartment from Sam’s,” Maggie explained, her voice much more relaxed.

 

Kara took a breath, slightly relieved at the news, “Okay, how minor?”

 

“Well… fender bender is putting it lightly,” Kara rolled her eyes. “She got t-boned by a car while she was turning. The car’s totaled and she’s fine! I know what you’re thinking, but she is fine little Danvers. She’s just at the Metropolis Hospital right now, getting checked out. I’m with her.”

 

“Was she in an ambulance? Did she break anything? Was she unconscious? Why wasn’t I called?” The rapid firing of questions made Maggie chuckle.

 

“Yes. No. No. And because she knew you would worry and you’re with Lena right now,” Maggie answered.

 

“What? Just cause I’m with Lena doesn’t mean that I need to not be informed of her condition,” Kara scoffed at the blatant exclusion of her sister.

 

“Relax little Danvers,” Maggie said in an attempt to sooth her. “She’s okay. She was cursing at me. She’s her normal self.”

 

“So she called you?” Kara raised an eyebrow as she inquired.

 

“Uh yeah,” Maggie slightly sputtered over her words at Kara’s small accusation.

 

“Hm, interesting,” Kara said. “So what do I do?”

 

“Nothing,” Maggie replied. “You don’t have to come to the hospital as Alex should be discharged within the next hour or so. Either you could wait for us to pick you up or find a ride back to the apartment by Lyft or something.”

 

Kara rolled her eyes, “Fine whatever. I’ll figure it out. Just keep me updated on when you guys leave the hospital okay?”

 

“Have no fear little Danvers,” Maggie teased. “I’ll be in touch. Enjoy with your little date with Lena!”

 

The Latina hung up the phone before Kara could even respond. Rolling her eyes at her phone, she tucked the device in her back pocket.

 

Kara walked back into the room and saw Lena sitting down at a desk. The younger Luthor looked up, “Is everything okay?”

 

The blonde nodded briskly, not wanting to fully divulge what was going on in her personal life, “Yeah. My roommate got into an accident.”

 

“Oh no, do you want to go to the hospital?” Lena asked, concerned. “I can get my driver to bring you.”

 

“No, no,” Kara waved off dismissively. “It’s okay. Our mutual friend is with her. She’ll be okay.” The blonde reassured.

 

“You sure? I can get my driver here in no time,” Lena offered.

 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I just have to figure how I’m going to get home,” Kara said, taking the seat across from her.

 

“Do you need a ride?”

 

“It’s okay. I wouldn’t want you to go out of your way,” Kara said appreciatively. “Thank you though.” She added.

 

“It’s not a problem. I’ll bring you home,” Lena said, leaving no room for discussion.

 

“Okay. I won’t fight you on it, but I’ll make it up to you,” Kara gave a genuine smile, which the woman in front of her returned.

 

“You don’t have to, but what’re friends for?” Kara heard a slight hesitation in that statement.

 

“Is Lena Luthor declaring me one of her friends?” Kara teased, pulling her notes towards her as she glanced over what they went over before they were interrupted.

 

“I suppose so,” Lena teased back. “I think we’re done for today.”

 

Kara raised an eyebrow, “Really?” It didn’t feel like they were done, but she knew that they did go over a lot within the past couple hours.

 

“Yeah, let’s call it a day. We had a long first week to begin with,” Lena shrugged, closing her notebook. “I’ll text my driver to pick us up.”

 

Kara nodded as the two women started to pack their belongings. After a few minutes, they were both ready and made their way out of the library. The walk to wherever they were meeting to get picked up was relatively quiet. They stopped in front of a building—it looked like the science building—but she still wasn’t used to her surroundings yet.

 

“How was your first week?” Lena asked, breaking the comfortable silence as they waited for Lena’s driver.

 

“It was good, a little overwhelming, but nothing too bad,” Kara replied. “How about you?”

 

“Busy, but that’s a norm for me to be quite honest. At least when I’m at school, it’s just school I worry about you know? Not that I don’t think about L-Corp because I do and I care about the direction of my company. But that’s why Sam’s there, she’s such a huge help,” Lena said fondly about her friend.

 

“That’s good though. How’s your thesis stuff going?”

 

“As expected. Henshaw wants me to have a definitive topic, but I told him I’d get back to him by the end of the month or so,” Lena shrugged.

 

“What are your options?” Kara asked.

 

“Well, I haven’t gotten that far ahead to be honest. I have general ideas of what I want to do, but nothing set in stone,” Lena explained vaguely, which Kara nodded in agreement.

 

“Completely understandable,” Kara said as a sleek black town car pulled up in front of them.

 

An older gentleman stepped out of the car, giving a polite smile to the two women, “Miss Luthor and Miss Luthor’s friend.” He opened the door and they went inside the car, Kara following in after Lena. The door was quietly shut.

 

“Where to Miss Luthor?” The man asked as he took sat in the driver’s seat.

 

“Jenkins, we’ll be taking Kara home before we head over to Sam’s,” Lena instructed, pulling out her phone. “Please tell him your address, Kara.”

 

Kara gave the address to her apartment complex and Jenkins started the navigation system. It would be about a fifteen-minute drive. Lena was busy checking emails on her phone, so the blonde slumped into the seat, easing the tension from the week out of her body. She started to think about Alex and hoped that she was okay. She hadn’t checked her phone since the call, so Kara opted to text Maggie.

 

Pulling out her phone, she sent a text to Maggie.

 

_How’s everything?_

 

Surprisingly, Maggie texted back right away with a quick update.

 

_She’s doing well. Vitals are stable and normal. She has a mild concussion though, so she’s a bit unhappy with that. Other than that, we’re still waiting to get discharged. Where are you?_

 

Letting out a quick sigh of relief, Kara responded.

 

_That’s good to hear! Of course she’s upset, she has to rest. You and I both know she hates that. Aaaaaand I’m on my way back to the apartment._

 

Maggie must have been on her phone because her response again was fast.

 

_She’ll survive. How are you getting home?_

 

Debating on whether or not Kara should tell Maggie the truth or just say she took a Lyft back, she opted on the former.

 

_Lena._

 

Was the simple answer.

 

Maggie responded with a winky face and a thumbs up, which Kara rolled her eyes, putting her phone back in the pocket.

 

“Everything alright?” Lena asked, bringing Kara’s attention to the woman seated next to her.

 

“Yeah, I was just texting my friend, Maggie. She’s with my roommate at the hospital,” Kara explained. “They’re just waiting to get discharged.”

 

“That’s good. Did everything come out normal?”

 

“For the most part, yeah. Alex just came out with a mild concussion,” Kara said.

 

“It could’ve been worse,” Which Kara nodded in agreement to. It really could’ve been worse, but thankfully it wasn’t.

 

The car came to a stop as it pulled in front of the curb of the apartment complex. Kara gathered her things, making sure she had everything. She turned to Lena and brought a hand to her arm, giving it a soft squeeze, “Thanks again Lena. I appreciate the ride.”

 

Lena’s hand went on top of Kara’s, returning the gesture, “Of course. I meant it when I said we’re friends.” She took her hand away and gave Kara a smile.

 

“I’ll see on you on Monday?” Kara asked.

 

“That you will,” Lena answered.

 

Kara nodded, smiling while the passenger door opened. She peaked out and saw that Jenkins had opened the door for her. “See ya Lena, have a good weekend! Tell Sam I said hello.”

 

“Have a lovely weekend, Kara. I’ll make sure to tell Sam,” Lena winked, which caused the blonde to slightly blush at the insinuation.

 

Kara stepped out of the car, thanking Jenkins for the ride. She waited at the entrance of the complex until they left. She waved at them as they drove off, which she could’ve sworn that Lena returned the wave through the the tinted windows.

 

A feeling of happiness filled her chest, but that was quickly dismissed as she realized what the feeling meant.

 

“Holy fuck,” Kara cursed under her breath. “It’s just a crush.”

 

A simple crush.

 

Or complete denial.

 

Kara didn’t know yet.

 

Or at least admit it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading y'all! see you next chapter


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy!

September went and came in a blur.

 

Kara adjusted to school life and all the work it entailed. On top of that, the team made no progress in the case. Locating Lex _or_ Lillian seemed impossible. None were able to find a lead as to where they _could_ be, which started to test everyone’s patience, especially Alex’s.

 

The concussion aggravated her more than it should have. Once she was cleared with a doctor’s note (even though she gave herself clearance), she was still annoyed about the whole situation—to a lesser degree.

 

But it was a waiting game as J’onn had said in the beginning. This case was indefinite. Kara wanted to help with logistics, but J’onn reminded her that her main objective was to protect Lena.

 

There was absolutely no room for discussion.

 

Alex also reminded her that her _primary_ and _only_ focus was Lena. Therefore, Kara needed to let the team do everything else—something the blonde was very reluctant to do. The two argued, but the older sister didn’t budge.

 

Sam started to be more present in their lives, not that it was a bad thing. The three women welcomed her with open arms into their little group of mischief, helping as much as she could. Her resources were limited though because she was only able to prod Lena so much about what she thought and felt about the situation.

 

_“She’s truly fucking difficult,” Sam stated one weeknight towards the end of September as she walked into the Danvers’ apartment._

_“Who?” Alex asked, pawning off the bottle of wine in the older woman’s hands._

_“Fucking Lena!” She dramatically dropped her bag on the coffee table, plopping herself next to Kara._

_“What did she do? She seemed fine after our last class,” Kara remarked, focusing on the homework assignment._

_“Nothing. That’s the thing. She refuses to acknowledge that this whole thing with Lex is a serious manner,” Sam started in on her tangent as Alex graciously handed her a glass of the wine. “Thanks, but seriously. She doesn’t want to do_ anything _about it. She’s all ‘let the authorities handle it’ or ‘there’s nothing we can do’ and my absolute favorite ‘he could be dead.’ She’s in complete denial! We know for a damn fact that he’s alive and doing only god knows what.”_

_“Maybe she has a lot on her plate?” Kara reasoned, putting her laptop on the coffee table. It looked like homework wasn’t on the agenda tonight._

_“I wouldn’t doubt that she doesn’t. It’s Lena, she’s always been busy for as long as I’ve known her. But holy fucking shit, she’s acting so ignorant and naïve,” Sam rolled her head back on the couch. Bringing her gaze to the blonde, “Have_ you _made any progress with her to talk about it? Lex escaped a month ago.”_

_“Umm…”_

_“That’s a fucking no,” Sam muttered._

_“Hey! It’s hard to talk to Lena about_ not _school related things,” Kara defended._

_“I thought you were supposed to get to fucking know her, not become a computer engineer,” Sam retorted. The frustration clearly evident in her tone._

_“Sam,” Alex warned, not too keen on how this conversation was going._

_“And I_ am _getting to know her,” Kara answered._

_“Well get to know her faster,” Sam bit back._

_“You’re the one that told us it took her_ years _to tell you anything,” Kara argued, becoming annoyed with the brunette beside her._

_“You’re right, I did. But come on, there has to be something you could do,” Sam pleaded._

_Kara saw a look of fear in Sam’s eyes. She knew that Sam was beyond worried for Lena, while the Luthor never showed a trace of fear or anxiety or any emotion over the situation. She remained relatively hush on the matter, even when the student commons had the news playing on one of the televisions, Lena acted as if it didn’t faze her._

_“Look, Sam, I’m trying really hard to get to know Lena. She rarely ever talks about herself and if she does, it’s about school. Just give me more time,” Kara said quietly._

After that night, Sam didn’t ask about Kara and Lena’s friendship anymore. The blonde didn’t have anything to say either. Alex did make a minor comment about the slight tension between them, but the older sister reassured to Kara that what she was doing was all she could.

 

By the middle of October, Kara was finishing up with her midterms. She thought it wasn’t that difficult, thanks to Lena tutoring her twice a week and Winn helping some nights. To everyone’s surprise, especially the blonde, she found herself enjoying the material. She became more versed in coding and understood what she typed on the screen.

 

“Do you want to get a drink?” Lena asked suddenly.

 

It was the Friday before Halloween. They also just took their last midterm earlier that afternoon. Lena offered to cancel their weekly session so they could use their time to mentally check out from school, but Kara mildly insisted that they do a bit of work for at _least_ an hour until she finally gave up.

 

“Hmm?” Kara glanced at Lena from the computer screen in front of her. She noticed a pointed look from the green eyed woman next to her, and sheepishly rolled the chair away. “Sorry, what did you ask?”

 

“Honestly, I admire how much you’re committed to learning,” Lena started. “But c’mon Kara! All we ever do is school work.”

 

Their tutor session was winding down and Kara sensed the restlessness radiating off the woman.

 

“Wait, what? You’re serious?” Tilting her head to make sure Lena was feeling alright. “You’re the one that’s constantly busy!” Kara countered.

 

“Well, _yeah_. I know. That’s because I’m obliged to do things, but I’m talking about us!” Lena rolled her eyes dramatically.

 

_Us?_ Kara thought. _Since when is there an ‘us’?_

 

“Uh, what about us?” Kara ask, unsure of what she meant.

 

“We literally do nothing else except school work. We barely talk about anything unrelated to school,” Lena stated matter-of-factly.

 

“Because school is literally our life?”

 

“I’m not saying it’s not. It’s _part_ of our life,” Lena began to explain. “I get that, believe me I do. I run a company on the side. But c’mon Kara! I’ve literally never seen you outside of school except that morning at Sam’s. I consider you my friend, so I’d like to think I’d see you outside of school too.”

 

Kara picked up on the tiniest bit of uncertainty in Lena’s voice at the end of the sentence. If there was one thing the blonde had picked up about her _now_ established friend, it was that Lena hardly had any friends. Sure, people in class talked to her. But it was always about school or current L-Corp projects. They were more or less colleagues that rarely, if ever, showed any genuine interest in Lena as a person.

 

Lena was constantly surrounded by people, whether or not she wanted to be.

 

Sam was right that first night.

 

Lena kept people at an arm’s length.

 

Given what she noticed, Kara was surprised that Lena officially graced her the title of _friend_.

 

“Wow, it seems like the next step in our relationship,” Kara joked, which Lena softly laughed at the statement.

 

“It is, isn’t it?” Lena smiled. “So what do you say? Drinks? I’ll even invite Sam.”

 

“Since you asked so nicely,” Kara returned the smile. She saved her work and shut down the computer.  

 

“Do you want to invite your roommate also?” Kara turned to Lena on her phone.

 

“I can if you don’t mind more people. I don’t think she’s doing anything tonight,” Kara replied.

 

“I don’t mind. The more, the merrier.”

 

“I’ll go call her,” Kara pulled her phone out of her bag. She walked out of the room. Her sister picked up on the second ring.

 

“ _Hey Kara._ ”

 

“Hey, what’re you doing tonight?” Kara asked.

 

“ _Waiting to pick you up obviously. Why?_ ”

 

“Do you want to get drinks?” The blonde leaned against the wall.

 

“ _Sure, with you?_ ” The older sister asked. Kara could’ve sworn she heard Maggie’s voice over the line.

 

“Yeah and Lena.”

 

There was a brief moment of silence on the line. Kara checked her phone to make sure that the call didn’t disconnect.

 

“Alex?”

 

Clearing her throat, Alex answered, “ _You… and Lena?_ ” Kara rolled her eyes at the obvious surprise in her sister’s voice.

 

“Yes? We just finished with midterms, and she invited me out for drinks,” Kara replied flatly.

 

“ _Uh sure, why not_ ,” Alex said hesitantly.

 

“You don’t have to, no one is holding a gun to your head,” Kara remarked.

 

“ _No, no. We’ll be there_.”

 

“We?” Kara raised an eyebrow.

 

“ _Maggie included. Sam texted her, inviting her too_ ,” Alex informed. “ _We’re going to get ready. Are you riding with Lena?”_

 

Kara heard Maggie exclaim loudly, “ _Hell yeah she’s going to ride Lena_!”

 

“Oh my god,” Kara shook her head in disbelief over Maggie’s antics. “Yes, I’m going to ride _with_ Lena.”

 

“ _Okay, we’ll see you there. Sorry about Maggie_ ,” Alex offered, which Kara knew she meant it.  

 

“No she’s not. It’s fine. See you in a bit,” Kara replied, ending the call before her sister could respond and slipping it into her back pants pocket.

 

The blonde walked back into the room to Lena packing up her stuff. She went over to her stuff to do the same. It was in a companionable silence.

 

“I think Sam invited someone named Maggie?” Lena said with uncertainty.

 

“Ah so I heard,” Kara replied, zipping up her bag.

 

“You know her?” Lena questioned, leaning against the table.

 

“Sadly yes,” Kara teased, though the look in Lena’s face showed she didn’t understand the joke.

 

“How?”

 

“Oh well, she lives across the hall from us. So when Alex and I moved here, she introduced herself and actually helped us move,” Kara said nonchalantly. It wasn’t a complete lie. Everything Kara said was true—in a way.

 

“How does Maggie know Sam?”

 

“That night before I met you, Maggie tagged along with us to the bar and met Sam too,” Which again, was true.

 

“Oh okay. And I’m going to assume Maggie was with Alex when you spoke on the phone with her?” Lena asked curiously.

 

“Yeah, I think they’re going to date soon. If Alex can get the courage to say something,” Kara shrugged. She slung her bag on her body. “Ready to go?”

 

Lena nodded, “Jenkins should already be in front of the financial aid building. I called him while you were on the phone.”

 

“Lead the way,” Kara stepped aside for Lena to walk in front of her.

 

Kara followed after she double checked that neither of them left anything behind. They made their way out of the library, and Jenkins was patiently standing by the town car.

 

“Miss Luthor. Kara,” Jenkins greeted the two women as they approached. He opened the back seat door, which they quietly thanked him. Jenkins shut the door after they settled in.

 

“Where are we going?” Kara asked.

 

“Some bar near L-Corp. Sam’s suggestion since she’s just finishing up with work,” Lena answered.

 

“Sounds good to me,” Kara replied as the vehicle started to move to their destination.

 

Lena was busily on her phone while Kara stared out the window, the streets of Metropolis passing by. She didn’t understand how their friendship shifted from school to outside of school. It wasn’t that she opposed this, this was progress after all.

 

Kara’s phone vibrated, pulling it out to a text from Sam.

 

_This is a new development_.

 

Thinking of something witty to reply, the blonde decided against it and simply responded, _I know_.

 

“Hey Lena?” Kara thought she should warn Lena about what Maggie _could_ be like.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Uh, so with Maggie, don’t take anything she says or does seriously,” Kara said.

 

“What do you mean?” Lena brought her phone to look at the blonde.

 

“She’s…” Kara paused on how she should adequately explain her coworker. “Well, she’s a fireball.”

 

“Sorry what?” Lena chuckled at the random description.

 

“She’s a fireball,” Kara repeated as Lena raised an eyebrow. “Meaning, that she’s blunt. _Too_ blunt sometimes. And she loves teasing me.”

 

“I’m sure I can handle your friend, Kara,” Lena reassured. “I’ve met your roommate. She seems intense, on the other hand.”

 

It was Kara’s turn to chuckle, “That’s Alex for you. She’s overly protective of me. But seriously. Please don’t take offense.”

 

“Don’t worry. I won’t.”

 

\--

 

Margaret Sawyer could perish in the fiery flames of hell.

 

The moment that Alex and Maggie saw Lena, Kara, and Sam seated at a booth secluded towards the back of the bar lounge—Straits, an upscale place directly across from L-Corp—the Latina was _relentless_.

 

Once introductions were made, Maggie teased Kara to no end. She not-so-subtly brought up her night with Sam, which forced a blush from the two women involved. Though, Sam tipped her glass and smirked. It didn’t help that Alex was letting this all unfold, when Kara thought her sister was _against_ this. All the blonde could do was sit there quietly and endure whatever jabs were thrown her way.

 

That continued for over ten minutes before Maggie started talking about Kara’s unhealthy obsession with potstickers.

 

“Seriously, there was one night I joined them for dinner and there was _so_ many potstickers,” Maggie rambled. “Kara wouldn’t share either! It’s one of the things she can eat and will never tire from it.”

 

“What else do you like to eat?” Sam asked the blonde across from her with a playful smirk.

 

“She likes to eat pus—”

 

“Drinks!” Alex interjected before the sentence was finished, creating a laugh from Sam and Maggie. Kara noticed Lena smiling over the rim of her glass. The older Danvers turned to her very much blushing sister, “Why don’t you go get us a refill?”

 

“Yeah sure,” Kara sputtered out, quickly sliding out of the booth.

 

“Wanna do shots?” Maggie yelled after her jokingly, knowing that doing shots of an kind could be catastrophic.  

 

Kara walked as far away as she could from the situation, shaking her head. Stepping up to the bar and taking the empty bar stool, Kara let out a breath of relief. It was way _too_ much. Maggie had no filter tonight, which on any other night, Kara would have no issue with.

 

But tonight was _different_.

 

Lena was with them.

 

It wasn’t only the four of them hanging out at the apartment.

 

Closing her eyes, Kara slowly counted to five.

 

_One_.

 

_Two._

 

_Three_.

 

_Fo--_.

 

“Kara?”

 

Kara opened her eyes to see and turned to see Lena standing with a sympathetic smile. “Oh hey Lena,” Was all Kara could muster up as a response.

 

“Are you doing okay?” Lena asked politely.

 

“I’m fine,” Kara moved to stand up from the barstool. “Here, have a seat. I’ll get the drinks.”

 

Lena gave a questioning look, but sat down anyways. She scooted a bit to give Kara room to still be at the bar.

 

“Are you sure?” Lena asked.

 

“Yes, seriously. It’s just not what I was prepared for tonight,” Kara shrugged, leaning her torso against the bar while she waited for the bartender who was serving another group.

 

“Maggie’s interesting,” Lena stated.

 

Kara scoffed, “Interestingly annoying.” Eliciting a chuckle from the seated woman.

 

“Is she always like that?” Lena questioned.

 

“Like what?”

 

“…Vulgar?” Kara could tell that was probably the politest word Lena could use.

 

“Yes,” The blonde replied flatly.

 

“It’s not that I’m against one night stands, I’ve had my fair share of them. I honestly didn’t need that much detail about what happened between you and Sam,” Lena teased.

 

“No, oh my god,” Kara groaned. “I don’t even know how she makes that stuff up.”

 

“So you’re saying that you _didn’t_ lift Sam against the hallway wall to eat her—”

 

“Please do not finish that sentence,” Kara interrupted, making Lena burst out in laughter.

 

Kara playfully glared at the woman beside her, which made her laugh even more. The bartender came over, and the blonde quickly ordered their drinks, handing over her credit card.

 

The bartender walked away and Lena’s laughter subsided.

 

“This is nice,” Lena remarked, causing Kara to look at her curiously. “You know, hanging out with you _outside_ of school instead of stuck in a computer lab. It’s… refreshing.”

 

“It is,” Kara agreed. “What’re you doing for Halloween?”

 

Lena raised an eyebrow, “Not sure. Why?”

 

“Do you possibly want to do something?”

 

Before Lena could answer, the bartender returned with a tray of drinks and Kara’s card. The blonde scribbled her signature on the receipt and thanked said bartender who already walked away to help another customer. She grabbed the tray along with tucking her card back in her pocket and steadied it to make sure none of the drinks spilled, “Ready?” She asked.

 

“Yeah, do you need help?” Kara shook her head and Lena stood up, walking back to the table with the blonde right behind her.

 

The two approached the table and noticed that three occupants were surprisingly talking in quiet tones compared to before they left the table. As soon as Lena and Kara were noticed, conversation stopped. Kara looked at them questioningly, placing the tray on the table. Lena slid into the booth while the blonde remained standing.

 

“What?” Kara finally asked when no one said anything.

 

Sam rolled her eyes since neither of the other two women wanted to say anything, “We were talking about Lena’s birthday.”

 

“Sorry what?” Kara asked, while shooting a glance at Lena.

 

“Lena’s birthday?” Sam repeated. “It’s on Halloween, which is next Friday.”

 

Kara’s eyes widened, she didn’t know Lena’s birthday was Halloween. It’s not like she actually did an internet search on her to find out. Nor was it ever brought up in conversation.

 

“Oh,” Was all Kara could respond.

 

“Did you not know?” Maggie spoke up, looking slightly surprised.

 

“Uh no,” Kara replied.

 

“What?” Sam looked back and forth between Lena and Kara. “Huh, okay. Well yeah we were planning to do something for Lena since her birthday lands on a Friday this year.”

 

“Do I not get a say?” Lena asked. “What if I wanted to work?”

 

“You’re not going to,” Sam retorted. “We’re going out whether or not you like it.”

 

Lena huffed, taking a sip of her whiskey, “Fine whatever.” Kara sensed that she didn’t like the idea of celebrating her birthday and made a mental note to ask her about her birthday at some point.

 

“I’m going to make us a group chat so we can plan it,” Sam commented, pulling out her phone.

 

“Are we getting dressed up?” Alex asked.

 

“Is water wet?” Maggie mocked the older Danvers sister, in which Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Obviously. It’s fucking Halloween! What’s the point if the main reason for this holiday is for people to get dressed up?”

 

“I was just fucking asking!” Alex threw her hands up dramatically.

 

The two continued to bicker back and forth. Kara relented and slid into the booth next to Lena while Sam was typing away on her phone.  

 

Kara felt guilty about not knowing that Lena’s birthday next week. Personal topics exactly like _this_ were never discussed. She started to realize how very little she knew of Lena aside from what she noticed at school. Hell, she didn’t even know what Lena’s favorite color was. Kara was determined to ask more trivial questions about the woman next to her—what she liked, what she didn’t like, all of it.

 

“Are they always like this?” Lena’s voice broke Kara out of her thoughts.

 

“Unfortunately yes,” Kara replied. “I just think it’s unresolved sexual tension between them.”

 

“Do you think it’ll be resolved?” Lena wondered.

 

Kara chuckled, “Eventually. It’s a slow burn between them. Even though Alex has been harboring this crush for some time now. I’m also pretty sure Maggie returns the feeling. So hopefully sooner or later.”

 

“Hopefully,” Lena nodded.

 

“Check your phone so we can tell each other who is whose number,” Sam announced, though it was more directed towards Lena.

 

All of them pulled out their phone, seeing the first group chat message sent by Sam. They all replied saying whose number it was, then put their phones away.

 

“Pool anyone?” Maggie suggested, seeing that a pool table had opened up.

 

“Sure, ready to get your ass kicked _again_?” Kara countered.

 

“You’re on,” Maggie said, standing up. “I’ll go rent the stuff from the bar.”

 

“Put it on my card!” Kara called after the Latina, which she returned with a lazy wave.

 

\--

 

The rest of the night went by with minimal distractions. Maggie was more subdued, most likely because of Alex who dragged the woman towards the bar when it was their turn to get the drinks. When they came back with the next round, Maggie did not actively go out of her way to torture Kara, but there was still playful banter here and there. Sam was Sam. She conversed when appropriate, but more or less, sat there and nursed her martini, knowing she had to be more responsible than the first night they met.

 

Lena quietly told Kara that she felt tipsy after beating Maggie in pool, for the third time. Maggie walked away from the table frustrated back to the bar—followed closely by Alex to make sure nothing happened. Kara was supposed to play against Maggie, but Lena wanted to give it a try.

 

“Did you want to leave?” Kara asked, steadying Lena as she swayed a bit side to side.

 

“I think it might be the best decision,” Lena said, her words slightly slurring together, as she relaxed into the hands holding her up.

 

“Okay, let’s go tell the others,” Lena nodded to the blonde’s words. Kara slowly let go in case Lena fell over. “Come on,” She held her arm out when Lena tightly held onto.

 

Kara led the the woman attached to her back to the table, but that was without Lena stumbling into Kara a few times. By the time they made it, Lena’s arms were wrapped around Kara’s waist with the blonde’s arm slung over the Luthor’s shoulders, holding her close.

 

“Don’t you two look cozy,” Sam smirked, forcing a blush to form on Kara’s face.

 

“Lena’s a bit tipsy,” Kara replied, rolling her eyes. “She’d like to go home.”

 

A look of understanding crossed Sam’s face and she nodded. Lena was pressing more of her weight into Kara, which the blonde noticed that her eyes were closed. The blonde adjusted her position, making sure they didn’t fall over. The older woman was gathering her things, and by that time, Maggie and Alex returned.

 

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, seeing Lena hugging Kara like a koala and Sam making a move to stand.

 

“Why is Lena draped all over Kara?” Maggie wondered.

 

“She’s tipsy,” Kara stated coolly, not wanting to enable Maggie to make any jokes.

 

“Ah got it,” Maggie nodded in agreement. “So we’re going then?”

 

“You all can stay, but I’m gonna take that one,” Sam pointed to Lena. “Home with me.”

 

“Hm?” Lena raised her head enough off of Kara’s body, barely opening her eyes at Sam.

 

“You’re coming with me,” Sam repeated, which Lena groaned, nuzzling her face into Kara’s side.

 

“Do I have to?” Lena whined, pulling Kara closer, but didn’t notice the blonde’s eyes widening along with Maggie and Alex.

 

“Yes. Who are you going to stay with?” Sam questioned, shooting an exasperated look to Kara.

 

“Kara’s?” Lena mumbled sleepily against the blonde. No one else heard the response.

 

“What’d she say?” Alex asked.

 

“Uh, she said Kara’s,” Kara replied nervously, knowing the thought going through her sister’s head.

 

“No,” Alex said flatly.

 

“I agree,” Sam chimed in.

 

“I don’t, but whatever,” Maggie shrugged, grabbing her jacket. “I’ll be outside.”

 

“Wh—what? Maggie!” Alex called after the woman walking away. She put her jacket on, “I’ll meet you outside. I’m going to see what crawled up her ass.”

 

With that, Alex walked after their friend.

 

Kara watched that whole scene unfold and was concerned over two things. One, why was Maggie in disagreement with the group? Two, what was going on with Lena? She didn’t peg the woman tightly holding onto her side as an affectionate drunk. Maybe an argumentative confrontational drunk, but definitely not this.

 

“She’s usually not like that,” Sam’s words broke Kara out of her thoughts. She gave Kara a sympathetic smile. “I texted Jenkins, he should be outside in a few minutes. Shall we?”

 

Sam stood up next to Lena, poking her lightly, waking her up. She was more alert compared to a few moments ago. “What?” She mumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, but still staying close to Kara, as she looked at her friend.

 

“Come on, we’re going home,” Sam held an arm out, hoping that Lena would unlatch from the blonde, who still had her arm around the Luthor’s shoulder. When Lena made no attempt to move, Sam rolled her eyes, dropping her arm. “You’re coming home with me, _Kieran_. Even if you don’t want to.”

 

The use of her middle name caused Lena to be wide awake, dropping her arms from Kara’s body, and took a step away from the blonde. “Fuck you, Arias.” She grumbled out, grabbing her coat from the booth. Sam shrugged indifferently and flipped her off.

 

Kara awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck the moment Lena let go, force coughing in a lame attempt to hide her blush. After Lena put her coat on, Kara grabbed her jacket and slung it over her shoulder, feeling a little too warm from Lena’s body heat.

 

The three of them walked out of the bar to Alex and Maggie in what looked like an intense conversation. Kara stayed behind Lena just in case she fell over, because the younger Luthor’s gait wasn’t that steady. Sam cleared her throat loud enough to get their attention, forcing them to take a quick step away from each other as if they were caught doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing.

 

Kara noticed that Lena looked bored as she stood right beside her. Without missing a beat, Lena leaned her head on the blonde’s shoulder. Unsure of what to do with her arm, Kara left her arm at her side, but did step a little closer Lena’s into radiating body warmth

 

“All good?” Maggie said, after a moment where everyone just stared at each other.

 

“Yup,” Sam said in a clipped tone.

 

Kara felt that she was missing something about what was going on between them, excluding Lena. But before she could say something about it, Lena’s black town car pulled up alongside the curb. Jenkins stepped out of the car, and quickly made his way to the passenger door once he saw the Lena’s tipsy state. He briefly greeted the other women and opened the door.

 

“Come on,” Sam tugged Lena’s wrist a bit forcefully, snapping her head from Kara’s shoulder.

 

“Ouch, you shithead,” Lena complained, pulling her wrist back, but wasn’t sober enough to counterbalance the jerk and swayed back in Kara’s direction, almost falling over.

 

But the blonde’s reflexes were faster and balanced Lena. She gave an apologetic smile, steadying herself while Sam watched the situation with an undecipherable look.  

 

“Let’s go, Lena. Seriously,” Sam sounded annoyed.

 

“Whatever,” Lena looked back at Kara, wrapping her arms around her body to give a hug.

 

As fast as Lena wrapped her arms around Kara, the blonde wasn’t quick enough to return it. The Luthor stepped back, gave a half-assed wave to Alex and Maggie. She turned to Kara once more—Sam muttered an _oh for fucks sake_ , which only the blonde heard—and said, “I’ll see you on Monday, Kara. Have a good rest of your weekend. I hope we do this again some time.”

 

“We will,” Kara said softly, which Lena gave the brightest smile the blonde had ever seen on her face.

 

“You will! Next weekend, and I’m definitely going to kick your ass at pool Lena,” Maggie exclaimed, forcing an eye roll from the Luthor.

 

Lena gave Kara one more smile and turned to her car, stepping around Sam to get inside the car. The older woman mouthed a _thank you_ to them, which they nodded. Sam followed after Lena, but before Jenkins shut the door, Lena held out Kara’s school bag.

 

“Oh!” Kara walked closer to take the bag out of Lena’s hands. “I almost forgot, thanks.”

 

“No problem,” Lena said, leaning back into the seat with her eyes closed.

 

Jenkins closed the car door once Kara stepped back and bid farewell to the women on the curb. They watched the car pull away from the curb and drive down the street. As soon as the car was almost too far to be seen, Kara felt her body surrounded by the two other women.  

 

“Well…” Alex began to say, most likely to start in on her lecture about how _whatever_ transpired tonight between them needed to be nipped in the bud soon.

 

But Maggie said something instead.

 

“ _You’re so screwed, little Danvers_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! see you next chapter :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy! :)

Kara’s weekend following their night out was tame. She was actually able to breathe and relax with midterms over. She still had homework to do, but she could afford to take this much needed time off. So she spent the weekend lazily on the couch, binge watching shows on her Netflix queue. She also started watching a show called _The 100_ with Alex, which she thought one of the characters—Octavia—extremely attractive.

 

Kara expected a lecture from Alex after what happened with Lena, but her sister remained uncharacteristically quiet about the whole ordeal. The only thing Alex did was remind her to “ _be careful_.”

 

She could not foresee that Lena would be _that_ affectionate in her drunken state. It seemed like a shock to Sam as well, given her reaction.

 

_But_ what surprised Kara, and even Alex, was that Maggie had something to say. She always had something to say, but kept herself relatively mum about this. That is, until the Latina came over the morning after for breakfast and waited for Alex to serve pancakes to say something.

 

_“So you and Lena huh?” Maggie said, Kara taking a bite of the whole stack of pancakes her sister put in front of her._

_“What?” Kara mumbled out, mouth full of food._

_“You. Lena Luthor,” Maggie stated, sipping her coffee._

_Kara swallowed, “Yeah? We’re friends.” A confused look crossed the blonde’s face as she stared at Maggie._

_“Seriously?” Maggie gave a look of disbelief._

_“Is there something I’m missing?” Kara asked bluntly, placing her utensils on the table. “Because I know you and Alex were talking about me last night.”_

_“Kara…” Alex trailed off._

_“No save it. You’ve already told me to be careful, but there’s more that you both have to say. Maybe not so much you,” Kara pointed to her sister. “But you. I feel like you have more than_ enough _to say on the matter.”_

_Maggie rolled her eyes, “You want to know what I think?” Kara didn’t respond, instead chose to remain silent. The Latina looked at the older Danvers sister, who was shaking her head in disagreement. “I’m going to tell her.”_

_“I can’t stop you,” Alex sighed in resignation, taking the seat next to Kara._

_“It’s crazy, but I think that you should actually_ date _Lena,” Kara’s eyes widened at Maggie’s statement. The blonde was about to respond, but she kept going. “No, shh little Danvers. I have the metaphorical talking stick. Alex is obviously_ against _me, but seriously. I think if you dated, courted—whatever the hell you want to call it—Lena, it would make life a whole lot easier. For everyone.”_

_“Wh-what?” Kara could not believe the words that were coming out of Maggie’s mouth. “How would that make it easier?”_

_“You bet your ass I have this already listed out as I’ve tried explaining this to Alex_ multiple _times already,” Maggie smirked at the older Danvers, who rolled her eyes. “One, you’d be able to stay with Lena around the clock as in you’d most likely have the ability to stay over or she stays with you, which means you’d stay in my apartment since I don’t have this elaborate set up of government equipment lying around. Two, being in a relationship means you would talk more about the intimate details of thoughts, feelings, and the like on literally anything. Come on little Danvers, you remember what it’s like to date someone, even if the last person was Sara Lance. Three, you are highly qualified to protect Lena in whatever comes her way, since you know hand-to-hand combat. And final reason being that last night confirmed it all.”_

_Kara was speechless. She wanted to process everything Maggie said, but the last bit peaked her curiosity. Instead of acknowledging everything else said, which was valid in some warped way, she asked, “What do you mean last night confirmed it all?”_

_Maggie smirked even wider if that was even possible, “Oh please, the chemistry between you two, anyone that didn’t know would think you two are together.”_

_Kara thought on any moment last night where the two interacting with one another could have been misconstrued as something more than platonic friends._

_She drew a blank._

_“There was no specific moment,” Maggie said, voicing Kara’s thoughts. “So before you give yourself an aneurysm on a specific moment from last night, let me tell you, it’s subtle. Subtle but obvious. A contradiction I know, but very much obvious how well you and Lena mesh together. It’s actually gross.”_

_“I don’t understand,” Was all Kara could muster up to say._

_“Just... Think about what I said,” Maggie said. “I’m not saying that you and Lena should be together within the next day, even for the lesbian culture, that seems a bit fast. I’m just saying that if you and Lena do happen to date or develop feelings for each other, don’t fight it. Your sister’s completely against what I have to say, for obvious reasons. But let things take its course.”_

There was still a lot Kara didn’t know about the younger Luthor.

 

She just found out that Lena’s middle name was Kieran, which she thought to be a pretty name and suited her. She also found out that Lena’s birthday was on Halloween.

 

Kara made a mental note to ask more trivial information about Lena for the coming week, and she would tell things about herself as well.

 

They were _friends_ after all.

 

\--

 

Once the school week started that Monday, Kara expected Lena not to remember what happened.

 

That wasn’t the case.  

 

Lena profusely apologized on how she acted as soon as the two saw each other before their first class of the day. She went into a long winded explanation about how she usually wasn’t like _that_ , which Kara reassured her that it was okay.

 

The younger Luthor briefly mentioned that she had no recollection of draping herself over Kara, but Sam told her the following morning what happened.

 

_“I’m_ so _sorry, Kara,” Lena said apprehensively. “I’m usually not like that. I tend to keep to myself and—”_

_Before she could go into a ramble, Kara spoke, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”_

_“No, it’s not okay,” Lena said firmly. “Sam made it_ quite _apparent that I was all over you on Friday.”_

_“She’s exaggerating,” The blonde reassured. “I was making sure that you didn’t fall over and hurt yourself.”_

_“Hmph,” Lena sounded indignant about the whole situation. “Regardless, I apologize.”_

_“Apology accepted,” Kara gave the woman next to her a small smile before the lecture started._

 

An apology wasn’t necessary.

 

No matter how much Lena insisted that it was.

 

There seemed to be something more Lena wanted to say, but there was a sense of hesitation. The blonde didn’t prod her, having a gut feeling that it might make Lena uncomfortable.  

 

Kara didn’t have the heart to confess that she _enjoyed_ the closeness. It felt morally wrong to tell someone, _yes I thoroughly enjoyed being close to you, but in a completely not-so-platonic matter_. She chose to ignore the slight chest tightening she felt whenever she saw Lena, deciding that whatever _it_ was would pass.

 

Not that it was that familiar, but unfamiliar, feeling of developing a crush on someone.

 

Not that it would develop into anything more.

 

Kara hoped she would be able to control her crush—but she wouldn’t admit it to anyone.

 

At least, not yet.

 

\--

 

By mid-week, Sam texted their group chat with details about how they were celebrating Lena’s birthday that Friday. She was turning 25 and Maggie made a comment about how turning a “quarter of a century” was a big deal.

 

Lena, on the other hand, didn’t think her birthday was a big deal and everyone was making a big fuss out of nothing.

 

“Do you not like your birthday?” Kara asked, just finishing up with her lunch, which thankfully, the cafeteria served potstickers that day. She felt a bit stuffed.  

 

They were seated at a table in the student commons during a break between their classes.

 

“Pardon?” Lena looked up from her laptop.

 

“Do you not like your birthday?” Kara repeated the question.

 

Pushing her laptop slightly away from her, Lena made a small face of contempt, “It’s not that I don’t like my birthday. It’s just… I’ve never really celebrated it.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Uh, well, the last I ever actually celebrated my birthday was when I was 4 before being adopted by the Luthors,” Lena started off, but the blonde interrupted.

 

“You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to,” Kara gave her an out, which the Luthor shook her head.

 

“No, no. It’s okay,” Lena said politely and continued. “Yes, well I don’t have a clear memory of the birthday party itself, but I do know that it was my fourth birthday and it was in Ireland in a small coastal town where my birth mother was from. I was actually born there. It was a small family get together I remember that much. I think I have a small photograph of myself and her somewhere locked away in a safe. A couple months later, my mother suddenly passed away from pneumonia. Then no more than a week after her death, I was at the Luthor Estate in Metropolis with this whole new family.”

 

Kara watched Lena speak the whole time. A look of melancholy crossed her features along with a sad smile and a faraway gaze. It tugged at the blonde’s heart about Lena’s birth mother. She knew that Lena was adopted, but she didn’t know that her mother died. Sam didn’t mention it that first night they met. It also made Kara slightly furious with the Luthor parents as they did not celebrate Lena’s birthday. For the past twenty-one years, this woman seated in front of her hadn’t had a proper birthday celebration.

 

“Thanks for telling me that Lena,” Kara said with a reassuring smile.

 

Lena came back from wherever her mind went, and gave a shy smile, “I wanted to. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone that. Even Sam.”

 

“Oh,” This made Kara’s heart race. Clearing her throat to calm her nerves, “Thank you. It makes me happy that you could tell me something like that.”

 

Kara glanced at Lena who had a slight blush on her face. When their eyes met, the younger Luthor averted her gaze off to the side. After a brief moment, she brought her gaze back to Kara’s blue eyes, opening and closing her mouth to say something, but no words came out.

 

Kara gave a soft reassuring smile to her friend before she began tidying up the food waste.

 

“I just feel comfortable around you,” The blonde stopped what she was doing to see a nervous smile on Lena’s face. “I, uh—don’t know why I said that.” She bashfully brought her eyes down as if there was something interesting on the ground.

 

The blonde smiled at Lena’s shyness and placed the contents in her hand back onto the table. “Hey,” The piercing green eyes brought their gaze to meet the crystal blues. “You don’t have to ever feel awkward or uncomfortable with telling me how you feel okay?” Kara said reassuringly.

 

“I don’t talk about my feelings, ever. Or things like that,” Lena said honestly.

 

“I’m all about talking about my feelings,” Kara said as if it was the most obvious thing. “But I respect whatever you tell me and I’ll always be here to listen to whatever you have to say.”

 

Lena didn’t say anything, but she still kept her eyes locked with Kara’s.

 

Kara’s gaze didn’t waver, as she took the woman in front of her in.

 

_Really_ took Lena in.

 

Kara had always thought Lena was beautiful. But the Lena that people saw was completely different from the Lena in currently seated in front of her.

 

Lena in the public eye was beautiful—something Kara and anyone with eyes could see. The media portrayed the younger Luthor as a billionaire tech mogul who was exceptionally gifted in the business and development of L-Corp. She was seen as a vindictive leader who was a force to be reckoned with, but had a soft heart for children cancer research.

 

_This_ Lena was different.

 

A vulnerable Lena had never been seen on the front page or in the press.

 

Not when Lex was sentenced to prison. Not even when he escaped from prison. She kept an unreadable stony expression to the press.

 

Vulnerable was not a word used to describe Lena.

 

Kara reached out to hold Lena’s hand, which the blonde noticed a _slight_ resistance, but Lena relaxed into the gesture. “You’re safe with me, Lena. I promise.”

 

After a quick beat of silence, Lena smiled and responded with, “I know.”

 

\--

 

Friday arrived, and that morning, Kara sent a long winded text message to Lena, wishing her happy birthday. To which, Lena simply replied with a _thanks_ and a few emojis. But not the same amount Kara sent.

 

The plans were set for that evening once the two finished their last class. Sam instructed everyone to meet at Lena’s apartment in downtown Metropolis. She ordered food to be catered so they would have a dinner and drinks before they went to some bars around the area. Maggie suggested they go somewhere else, but Lena refused to go to other bars that weren’t within a five block radius of her apartment so she could easily go home if she became annoyed. They were able to compromise that they’d stay nearby if Lena promised she’d stay out to at least midnight.

 

As soon as Kara saw Lena outside before their first class, she nearly tackled the younger Luthor to the ground from the force of her hug.

 

“Kara!” Lena shrieked as soon as she felt two strong arms wrap around her.

 

“Happy birthday Lena!” The blonde lifted the woman in her arms with relative ease and playfully spun her around.

 

“Kara put me down!” Lena started laughing.

 

“Fine fine,” Kara shook her head, gently putting Lena back on the ground. “How does it feel to be 25!? Quarter of a century!”

 

“When you put it that way, it makes me seem way older than I actually am,” Lena rolled her eyes.

 

“You’re younger than me. You’re fine,” The blonde reasoned, her arms still around Lena. There was no protest or awkwardness about their position.

 

“How old are you?” Lena raised an eyebrow.

 

“Old enough,” Kara winked. “I’m 27.”

 

“You’re not even _that_ old. You don’t even look 27 to begin with,” Lena said.

 

“Well believe it. I’m a grandma compared to you,” Kara teased, realizing that her arms were still wrapped around Lena, she cleared her throat and unwrapped her arms. “But are you excited for tonight?”

 

“I don’t have a choice,” Lena said bitterly. “I don’t even want to go out. But it’s a thing. So I’m going with it.”

 

“It’ll be fun,” Kara promised.

 

“Yeah, thankfully you’ll be there. If you weren’t going, I’d probably go crazy with those three,” Lena said honestly.

 

“Ha, well I’ll be there,” Kara felt the blush forming on her cheeks, so she awkwardly turned away. “Ready for class?”

 

Kara saw Lena nod in her periphery. The two made their way into the building. They made small talk about what the night should be like, but knowing the unpredictability of Maggie and Sam, Lena hoped for the best.

 

Kara did learn a few things about Lena within this past week. Lena’s favorite color was yellow because _it’s a happy color that makes me smile_ , even though she tended to wear neutral colors. Black was the most worn color. Lena’s favorite food was without a doubt Italian, especially when it came to desserts – gelato was her weakness. Lena didn’t really listen to music, but when she did, she opted for something that fell into the gothic rock genre – the band Evanescence gave her a sense of rebellion as a teenager.

 

There was a lot more random tidbits about what Lena liked and disliked. She really wanted to like the _Harry Potter_ series, but she could never rationalize how wizards and witches coexisted with muggles. However, superheroes like the _Flash_ and _X-Men_ apparently made complete sense.

 

Kara vowed that she’d make Lena sit through a whole _Harry Potter_ marathon with personal commentary. Which the younger Luthor bargained that they could do that if Kara promised to sit through a whole X-Men marathon—both the old and new generation. The blonde was reluctant about it, but she agreed nonetheless.

 

The blonde opened the lecture room door for Lena, which she gave a small thanks. It was a class that Lena was a TA in, so she walked up to the front to talk to the professor while Kara took her unofficial assigned seat.

 

Taking her notebook out, Kara felt her phone vibrate in her jacket pocket. It was a text from Sam.

 

_Hey! Make sure you guys are back at Lena’s no later than 6pm! We’re having Italian from her favorite restaurant in the city. Don’t tell her. She thinks it’s just going to be some generic shit. Oh, and Alex has the outfit you’re going to wear! You’re going to look so hot ;)_

 

Kara rolled her eyes at the last line of the text. She thought her current outfit of light wash skinny jeans and a gray shirt would suffice, but she guessed not. It also didn’t help that Maggie blabbed to Sam about the idea of Lena and her dating, which she was all on board for.

 

She didn’t bother replying, knowing that whatever her response with wouldn’t stop Sam from saying something else.

 

“Please make small groups and review how to…” The professor started speaking, breaking Kara out of her thoughts.

 

_Welp, hopefully the rest of the day goes by fast_.

 

\--

 

The school day does not go by fast.

 

If anything, it dragged on.

 

It made things much slower since Lena kept getting pulled into helping other students, leaving Kara to entertain herself except for when Imra and Querl sat next to her during the last lab.

 

But it was still a slow day.

 

Which was over and done with.

 

Kara cancelled their tutoring session earlier during the week once Sam told us the agenda for Lena’s birthday. The younger Luthor playfully teased the blonde for rescheduling, but understood why she had to. If she didn’t, neither of them wouldn’t hear the end of it from their friends.

 

Kara was seated outside of the computer lab building, waiting for Lena to finish up her meeting with Professor Henshaw about her thesis project. She knew how important this was to Lena, but she also saw how stressed it made Lena on having to decide what she wanted to do.

 

The blonde was absentmindedly checking social media before she felt someone’s presence in front of her.

 

Kara brought her gaze up and it was Lena, appearing slightly distraught.

 

“Everything okay?” Kara asked worriedly, quickly standing up and slipping her phone into her back pocket.

 

“Yeah,” Lena signed. “It was just Professor Henshaw. He’s really on my ass about my thesis.” She rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulders, but Kara could tell that it was bothering her more than she let on.

 

“I’m sure you’re going to do great on it,” Kara said reassuringly, although the Luthor hadn’t mentioned her thesis at all.

 

“Doubt that,” Lena replied flatly. “Ready to go? I want to get this over with,” Lena asked, starting to turn to walk towards where Jenkins was most likely picking them up.

 

“Hey,” Kara reached out, grabbing onto Lena’s wrist to prevent her from walking away. She didn’t turn around, but Kara felt her body tense. Relaxing her grip, she softly asks, “What’s really going on?”

 

Kara noticed Lena’s shoulders sag and she slowly turned around, “My mother called me.” Lena replied sadly.

 

The blonde’s eyes widened in shock because why wasn’t she notified as _soon_ as the call was answered? Was Winn or _anyone_ back in National City tracking Lena’s phone? She knew she had to get a hold of Alex or J’onn or _someone_ as soon as possible. Composing herself before Lena realized something was up, Kara asked in a neutral tone, “Isn’t that a good thing?”

 

Lena shrugged, looking off to the side and Kara let go, “Depends on what you define as good. She didn’t even wish me happy birthday. All she told me was to make sure L-Corp doesn’t tank because apparently the shares aren’t doing as well as she’d like even though it’s _my_ company. She gave up her right to have an opinion on anything about the _family_ business as soon as Lex was shipped off to prison.” Lena rolled her eyes. “But whatever. I’m about ready to lose myself in a bottle of scotch. Happy birthday to me right?” She sarcastically said more to herself.

 

Kara held a neutral expression, but she was internally fuming over the situation. She also felt surprised that Lena mentioned Lex, as it was one topic in particular that was never brought up in conversation.

 

“Come on,” Kara said firmly, extending her hand out. “Let’s get drunk tonight.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a shorter chapter, but i felt like it would've been way too long along with some things next chapter that earn this story's rating
> 
> bother me on tumblr if ya want [lmao](http://www.fkacoliecole.tumblr.com)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi :)

“Kara stop being fucking difficult!” Maggie yelled, shoving a shot glass of tequila in front of the blonde who tried returning the poison while the other three women laughed.

 

“Margaret,” Kara said lazily, the effects of previous shots began to take over, “We just took _three_ shots! We haven’t even left yet!”

 

“What’s your point?” Maggie asked, ignoring the use of her full name. “Come on, everyone else wants one right?”

 

“I think Kara’s right,” Alex reasoned, maneuvering around the smaller girl to take the tequila away. “We should hold off until we get to the bar.”

 

Maggie dramatically huffed, “Fine whatever. You guys can do whatever the hell you want. I, on the other hand, won’t let this high class liquor go to waste,” Maggie grabbed a different bottle and held it up in Lena’s direction. “Luthor, I know you want one.”

 

“Might as well,” Lena slid her shot glass on the counter which the enabler effortlessly caught. For being the most petite of the group, alcohol seemed to have no effect on her coordination.

 

While the two women continued to drink, Sam and Alex conversed about Ruby’s upcoming soccer game on Sunday morning. Kara snuck off to the couch that was calling out to her.

 

Kara plopped herself down. _Knew it was comfy,_ she thought dreamily. She leaned her head back against the cushions, closing her eyes as she tried to process the past few hours.

 

Before the two women left the university campus, Kara stepped away to call Winn, which he apologized as soon as he answered, already knowing the mood Kara would be in— _livid_. He explained that they had been tracking Lena’s phone calls and text messages, but Lillian’s call showed up _after_ the call ended. He and Lucy were stumped, further irritating the blonde. Winn thought that it had to do with the phone Lillian used, but he still needed to investigate. Kara expressed her frustrations with another dead end. Winn told her that the team were doing everything they can and reassured her that she was doing her job.

 

Kara scoffed and changed the subject by asking if he heard about Maggie’s proposal, which _of course he did_ because Alex called at the beginning of the week for updates, and that came up in conversation.

 

It had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the fact that her team had no boundaries and anything that happened in their lives spread like wildfire.

 

Her friend didn’t outright agree with Maggie given the whole Sara Lance ordeal, but also knew that it wasn’t the same situation. Winn suggested that _maybe you should keep an open mind and if it happens, it happens_. He bluntly asked her if she had a crush on Lena, which the blonde stumbled over her words and hastily replied that she had to go. Winn laughed, knowing that Kara couldn’t lie, and said that they’d talk again if there was anything that came up and reminded her to be safe.

 

They said their goodbyes and Kara went into Lena’s town car, greeting Jenkins politely. The two created a friendly banter, which was slowly growing the more the blonde tagged along for a ride. Kara could tell that Jenkins was very fond of Lena, which showed the few times he had takeout dinner ready in the car.

 

Once they were settled and on their way back to Lena’s apartment, no one said anything. She didn’t try to converse, nor did the blonde make any attempt. She was still fuming over the whole ordeal and was sure that Lena didn’t want to talk. They rode in silence with Jenkins playing soft classical music, both lost in thought, staring out the window as the lights of Metropolis flickered across their face.

 

When they made it to Lena’s apartment, Kara thought nothing of it. It was a typical modern apartment building that looked like the neighboring ones—tall and most likely tagged with insane rent price. They walked inside to the lobby and Kara absentmindedly made her way to the elevators and pressed the lone button, without noticing Lena walking in a different direction.

 

_“Hey, where are you going?” Lena asked, the blonde turned around to a confused look._

_“Uh, to your apartment?” Kara answered, unsure of why else she would stand in front of an elevator._

_Lena chuckled, “Come this way.” She made a gesture to follow, which the blonde did._

_Lena’s apartment was the_ one _thing that they didn’t recon because they—mostly Kara—felt that she should have at least some privacy. They knew where she lived, but they chose not to look at the blueprint of her apartment. She led Kara down an empty corridor to what looked like a service elevator. They waited for a few moments until doors slid open. The two women stepped in, making Kara feel slightly claustrophobic, but more nervous with how closely she stood next to Lena._

_The ride up was quick and silent as neither had anything to say. Lena was checking emails on her phone while Kara awkwardly looked around the small space in an attempt to distract herself from Lena’s perfume._

_The elevator doors opened to… Kara was speechless. It was apparent that this was the penthouse of the building. It was huge, and Kara assumed that it took up the whole floor. It had an open concept where the living room and kitchen blended together with a large marble island and stainless steel appliances that looked worth_ way _more than Kara’s and Alex’s life savings combined. There were high rise windows that showed the Metropolis skyline, which was next to a wall filled with shelves of books. There also seemed to be an impressive entertainment center that Kara was drawn mostly to the record player and vinyl collection next to it. The furniture looked modern in hues of beige and grey. It gave a homey feel, but Kara still sensed a touch of impersonal._

_“Kara?” Lena’s voice brought the blonde’s attention from admiring her apartment to a look of concern._

_“Hm?” She responded a bit in a daze._

_“Your coat? Can I take it?” Lena asked, which the blonde realized that she didn’t hear her the first time._

_“Oops,” Kara smiled sheepishly, and removed her coat, handing it to Lena. “You have a nice place.”_

_Lena tucked the article of clothing into the closet next to the elevator and turned around, “Thanks, I suppose. I’m rarely ever here.”_

_“Why?”_

_“Eh, usually at L-Corp or Sam forces me to stay with her,” Lena shrugged indifferently._

_Before Kara was able to respond, a loud familiar voice projected itself down a hallway._

_“There you two are!” Maggie appeared in the middle of the hallway entrance with a glass filled with an amber liquid in her hand._

_Kara rolled her eyes, knowing that her friend couldn’t resist a drink, and walked to examine the books on the wall._

_“Did Sam show you my liquor cabinet?” Lena asked, moving towards the kitchen._

_“Cabinet? It’s a fucking room,” Maggie scoffed. “Plus, you’re one person. You think you can drink that whole cabinet by yourself?”_

_“No, it’s a collection of mine that I started when I was 16,” Lena explained, stepping through a door._

_“Oh right, happy birthday!” Maggie said excitedly, causing a laugh to echo from the room Lena was in._

_“Thanks,” Lena came back out with what Kara could only assume was an expensive bottle of scotch. “You didn’t touch the rare ones, so here, you could taste this one.”_

_“Whatever,” Maggie rolled her eyes, standing next to Lena to examine the bottle. “Oh yeah the food. Let me go call your chef. The fact that you have a chef surprises me.”_

_“My chef? Why did you call Alessandro?” A raised eyebrow thrown at Maggie._

_“He’s preparing the food,” Maggie shrugged indifferently._

_“He doesn’t cook unless I ask him to make something,” Lena stated matter-of-factly._

_“I didn’t say cook. I said prepare. I know you’re 25 now Luthor, but I don’t think deafness comes this early,” Maggie retorted, moving around the kitchen and opening every cupboard until she found what she was looking for. A look of triumph appeared as soon as she pulled out a glass tumbler.  “You want one?”_

The drinking hadn’t stopped.

 

As soon as Alex and Sam joined the group from Lena’s office—from discussing Lillian’s call—the drinking peaked. Dinner wasn’t served yet, but the girls were well on their way to intoxication. Sam opted for wine while Alex pulled out a glass for scotch. By the time Alessandro and a couple other sous chefs brought up the catering from Lena’s favorite Italian restaurant, everyone except Kara had a pleasant buzz.

 

The look of surprise and joy on Lena’s face when the food was served made Kara’s heart fill with happiness because she knew that Lena deserved this, especially after everything that had been going on in her life. Kara wished she brought her camera to capture the moment, but experiencing it with Lena was more than enough. Maggie tried to take credit for picking the food, but Sam threw a bread stick across the table to shut her up. Lena knew that it was Sam, but still thanked everyone for putting in the effort and that, _“this is probably the best birthday I’ve ever had.”_

 

Dinner was filled with laughter and friendly conversation between everyone. Sam told stories from their younger years, which threw Maggie into a fit of tears with some of the situations the two got themselves into. The story of Lena’s _almost_ one night stand with a woman who wouldn’t sleep with her unless she was baptized especially made Maggie laugh. Then of course, Lena recollected a story about how Sam desperately tried to sleep with one of their old friends—Veronica Sinclair—but slept with the younger Luthor instead.

 

_That_ threw Maggie over the edge with a sly remark of _“Wow Luthor, how could you do that to your best friend?”_ Which was calmly replied with, _“I didn’t. Roulette did me instead.”_ Kara and Alex nearly choked on their food when Lena said that. Sam rolled her eyes and said, _“Fucking Lena’s a pillow princess to begin with.”_ The younger Luthor almost chucked a very expensive butter knife in her direction, but Kara gently wrapped her fingers around her wrist to stop her.

 

As soon as the plates cleared, Maggie pulled out shot glasses and a cheap bottle of tequila with limes and salt. Kara groaned at the thought of tequila because the last time she had tequila, she slept with Sam. The older woman teased her about history repeating itself, which Kara _swore_ she heard Lena growl at the suggestion. The blonde politely declined, which Sam playfully rolled her eyes at the blatant chivalry. Lena, however, smiled fondly at the blonde, standing next to her as Maggie poured the next round.

 

Which led us to the girls’ current state.

 

Kara winced at the shot glasses clanging on the counter and the laughter from whatever story being told. She brought her fingers up to her temples, slowly massaging the slight ache that was starting to form.

 

They were drinking for almost an hour once they cleaned up. They planned to go to a lounge nearby, but at that rate, it was becoming highly unlikely. A night in seemed a lot more appealing than a night out.

 

“Hey,” Lena’s voice floated next to Kara. “Are you okay?”

 

Kara opened her eyes to see a dopey smiling Lena with a glazed over look, sitting _close_ enough to where their elbows touched. The blonde couldn’t help but match the smile, “Yeah, I’m okay. Just a slight headache forming. Maggie yelling isn’t helping.”

 

Lena giggled, making Kara’s heart swoon at the angelic sound, “She has that effect, doesn’t she?”

 

“It’s annoying,” Kara whined, lolling her head back against the couch cushion. “Anyways, how’s your birthday going?”

 

Kara felt Lena shifting, which that actually meant the younger Luthor scooted _closer_ causing Kara to reach her arm over Lena to hang lazily on the couch.

 

Anyone with eyes would’ve thought that there was _something_ between them, especially considering how close they were. Lena was practically snuggled into Kara’s side.

 

“My birthday’s going pretty great,” Lena said, a slight slur present as she spoke. “I’ve never had this.” She gestured to the girls.

 

“Well, I’m happy for you,” Kara said earnestly, bringing her arm down to give Lena’s shoulder a small squeeze. “You deserve it.”

 

“Thanks,” Lena leaned in closer, Kara reflexively wrapping her arm around Lena’s body. “Honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with you.”

 

“What? What did I do?”

 

“You’re just—”

 

“What’s going on here?” Maggie interrupted before Lena could even finish her sentence. “You two _sure_ look cozy.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

 

Lena shyly hid her face in Kara’s neck, causing an immediate blush to form on her face that didn’t go unnoticed by the women who were now surrounding the pair on the couch.

 

“Yeah, how come you didn’t cuddle me like that?” Sam teased, and Kara _knew_ the small growl came from the woman next to her.

 

“Whoa, chill Luthor,” Maggie said, hearing the growl as well. “Kara’s yours. She just has to change into something less…” Maggie looked at the blonde’s current outfit with a raised eyebrow. “You know what, fuck it. She looks fine the way she is.”

 

“Oh come on!” Sam interjected. “Alex chose the _perfect_ outfit for her tonight.”

 

“Why would she need the perfect outfit?” Lena asked, raising her head from Kara’s body to see a smirking Maggie and Sam, while Alex stood there sipping her glass of scotch with a bored look.

 

“We’re going to find someone for Kara to take home!” Sam exclaimed, prompting Kara’s eyes to widen.

 

“Y-you’re going to what?!” Kara sputtered out.

 

The announcement of wanting to find the blonde to take someone home caused Lena to recoil from her side and put a noticeable space between them.

 

“You heard her, Kara. You’re going to take someone home tonight,” Maggie said proudly with a loud sigh from her sister in the background.

 

“This makes no sense!” Kara defended. “It’s Lena’s birthday. This night should be about her. Not me!”

 

“Please,” Sam scoffed. “That one will not take _anyone_ home. I know her.”

 

“High accusation for someone who hasn’t taken anyone home _in months_ ,” Lena retorted.

 

Kara gulped, feeling a blush form on the back of her neck while she noticed her sister shake her head. Maggie, on the other hand, started to laugh. The younger Luthor raised an eyebrow at the Latina’s outburst, bringing her gaze to the other women, Kara included. “Am I missing something?”

 

“Seriously?” Sam chuckled with a shit-eating grin on her face.

 

“Yes?”

 

“It seems that you may have forgotten that I took Kara home a couple months ago,” Sam replied simply. “You came over the morning after.”

 

Kara studied Lena’s face as she realized what Sam said was true. The younger Luthor briefly glanced at her, an unrecognizable look evident in Lena’s eyes. A look that Kara had never seen in her friend. She looked _hurt_? But as quickly as the look came, it left just as quickly. Lena’s eyes turned indecipherable, a slight steely glare casted in her direction.

 

“You’re right,” Lena said calmly, locking eyes with her longtime friend. “How could I forget?”

 

“Uh yeah,” Sam responded to Lena’s sudden mood change. “Shall we go?”

 

“Doesn’t Kara have to change?” Lena retorted, standing up from the couch.

 

“I think she’s fine the way she is,” Alex said, noticing the underlying tension that filled the room. Kara nodded in agreement, and surprisingly Maggie agreed as well.

 

“Wait what? She has to—”

 

“She’s fine the way she is,” Maggie interrupted Sam before she finished talking, shooting her a look to not push it.

 

“Uh yeah, she looks good. Can’t wait to see who hits on you tonight,” Sam said plainly, unaware of what was happening right in front of her.

 

“Alright, well,” Lena nodded. “I’ll be right back. Give me a few minutes.” She began to walk towards a hallway.

 

“Where are you going?” Sam asked.

 

Without even glancing back, Lena shrugged, “Going to change into something more appropriate.”

 

“Wasn’t that weird?” Sam directed the question to the remaining women in the living room, scratching her head at Lena’s retreating figure.

 

“Are you fucking serious Sam?” Alex said bluntly, rolling her eyes while Kara groaned.

 

“What’d I miss?” The older woman was truly that dense.

 

“Uh, Lena’s somewhat jealous?” Maggie said as if it was the most obvious thing. 

 

“She’s _what_?”

 

“Yeah, she’s jealous,” Maggie shrugged, sitting herself where Lena sat and sloshing the tumbler in her hand. “Why do you think me and Alex stepped in? She was about two seconds from ripping your head off.”

 

The words started to slur, but to Kara, no one was making sense. She was more concerned with the way Lena looked at her. Maybe she was jealous, but she had nothing to _be_ jealous over. Her and Sam were a one-time thing, the two even agreed.

 

But the younger Luthor most likely didn’t know.

 

It’s not like they ever spoke about relationships. Or love interests. Or… well, anything on that level.

 

“Either way, Kara’s pretty much fucked,” Kara tuned back into the conversation at Maggie’s mention of her name, missing most of what was said. “This night just got a _whole_ lot interesting”

 

\--

 

Kara _wished_ that for the first time in her knowing Maggie that the Latina would be wrong.

 

Just _once_ she wanted Maggie to be wrong.

 

Before they left Lena’s place, Sam suggested they each take three shots of their choosing since “ _alcoholic drinks at bars were overpriced for a dash of liquid in a cup full of ice_.”

 

By the time the women entered a high class lounge a few blocks away—thankfully Jenkins drove them—they were _drunk_.

 

_Stupid drunk_.

 

Maggie was somewhere at the bar, most likely with Alex nearby to make sure the Latina doesn’t do anything to get them kicked out. Sam said she was going to the washroom, but it had been a while.

 

That left a buzzed Kara with a very drunk Lena sitting across the table that Sam reserved.

 

The two hadn’t said so many words to each other after the younger woman went to change. Kara was speechless at Lena’s outfit. She wore a short dark grey halter dress that was tied at the base of her neck. It hugged her body loosely, but tight _just_ enough to show her curves. The blonde’s throat went dry the moment Lena walked back out to the kitchen. Maggie and Sam had a shit-eating grin on their face as they watched the two women.

 

The only thing Kara could muster up the courage to say was, “ _Wow_.”

 

Which the birthday girl playfully smirked in response. 

 

Kara reached for the glass of water that Alex brought as soon as they found their table. Taking a small sip to sober her up, she scanned the area before her eyes fell on Lena, who was staring at her. “Is there something on my face?” Kara asked, placing the glass back on the table.

 

“Nooo,” Lena hummed, a smile dancing across her features.

 

“Then why are you looking at me like that?” Kara leaned in closer, which the younger Luthor mirrored her action, their faces nearly touching. Kara smelled the faint smell of alcohol lingering in her breath.

 

“Looking at you how?” Lena whispered, green eyes quickly glancing down and back to Kara’s gaze.

 

“I—” Kara hesitated. She didn’t know the words to describe how Lena was looking at her, but it made her feel uneasy with the butterflies in her stomach. The drinks consumed earlier made her also feel _bold_.

 

A pitcher of beer slammed itself on the table, effectively popping the bubble the two women formed and ruining _whatever_ transpired between them. Kara leant back, clearing her throat rather awkwardly as she looked at Lena still leaning against the table with her gaze fixed on her.

 

“Please don’t break the glass,” Alex pleaded to Maggie who lazily sat next to the birthday girl, placing empty glasses on the table.

 

“Yeah yeah,” Maggie muttered. As the older Danvers sister began pouring everyone a glass, the Latina studied the other two women. Kara felt the inquisitorial look on the side of her face, so she smiled uncomfortably as she helped her sister. “What happened between you two?” She asked.

 

“Nothing!” Kara rushed out in a high pitched tone voice, stopping Alex mid-pour.

 

“That’s a lie,” Alex said, setting the pitcher down on the table to get a closer look.

 

Before the inquisition could begin, Lena spoke up, “Let’s go Kara.” Quickly maneuvering herself over Maggie and stood on the side of the table next to Alex. She reached to pull on Kara’s hand, dragging her out of the booth and walked them towards the makeshift dance floor.

 

Kara stood, watching, as Lena began to sway her body to the pulsing beat of the song. She knew that she was still drunk, and the _way_ Lena moved was doing _something_ to her.

 

_Remain strong, remain strong_ , Kara internally scolded as she tried to avoid looking directly at Lena. The attempt was futile once the birthday girl took her hands to be placed on the curvy waist, dropping her own hands. The blonde froze while Lena continued to move in her hands, taking slow steps closer to her. Close enough where their bodies were touching and the grip Kara had on Lena tightened, causing a soft whimper to fall from her mouth.

 

Kara started to sway her body to the beat of the _slower_ song that the DJ switched to while the woman in her arms wrapped her hands around her neck, anchoring herself to Kara’s body.

 

Time seemed to slow down for them, where they were on the only ones on the dance floor. Kara noticed Lena looking up at her, and even in the dimness of the lounge, she saw just _Lena_. As cliché as that sounds, she didn’t know how lucky she had to be to even be in the same presence as this woman. Given the circumstances, this wasn’t what she expected, but she wouldn’t change a thing.

 

“You’re staring,” Lena said with a teasing glint in her eyes.

 

Feeling bold with the effects of the drinks still running through her body, heart pounding against her rib cage, Kara responded simply, “You’re beautiful.”

 

Green eyes widened at the sudden declaration, a slight flush of appeared on her face. Lena leaned her head against Kara’s shoulder, which the blonde responded by leaning her cheek against it. The two continued to sway to the music. As the song slowly transitioned into a more upbeat song, Lena leaned back to look up into crystal blue eyes staring directly at her.

 

“What? Is everything okay?” Kara asked, furrowing her eyebrows. Instead of replying, Kara felt Lena slightly rise up on her tiptoes and gave her a soft kiss on her lips. As quickly as it came, it was soon over.

 

Neither woman said anything while they stared at each other. After a moment passed, Kara shook herself out of her daze and leaned down to give Lena a kiss on the lips that lingered before the younger Luthor realized what was happening, she pulled Kara’s body closer to her.

 

Kara’s initial thought when their lips met for the second time was that, _her lips are so soft_. Then her mind immediately went blank and focused on the woman whose lips she was attached to. The blonde’s arms automatically wrapped around Lena’s waist, pulling their bodies even closer and a soft moan falling against Kara’s lips.

 

Lena pulled back after a few moments, which Kara leaned forward to catch her lips again, but was stopped by Lena’s hands on her shoulders. She opened her eyes to Lena’s pupils blown out. “Was that okay?” Kara’s voice sounded raspy.

 

Lena nodded her head, then a smile formed slowly on her face, “Wanna get out of here?” Her eyes flitted towards the door behind her.

 

“If that’s what you want,” Kara cleared her throat, arms still wrapped around Lena’s body.

 

“I want you.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for bearing with me. i know it's been a long time, but i think life is *somewhat* slowing down for me where i'm actually able to write. i do have loads of other stories i'd like to write as well! but thanks for reading, i really do appreciate it :)


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